Peace, Love and War
by hxchick
Summary: Dave's life is perfect until an old friend dies and leaves him his two daughters. How does he find his way as a new father and how does the team help him?
1. Chapter 1

_Peace, Love and War-Chapter 1_

**~Thanks to Kdzl for her help with the title of the story and Ilovetvalot for her knowledge about the military.**

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><p>David Rossi looked up with a smile on his face as he heard a gentle knocking on his open office door. Standing there, with her hands on her hips, was Emily Prentiss, the woman he loved, the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, if only he could muster up the courage to ask her if she wanted the same thing. As he stared at her, her look of frustration changed to one of love and she came over to his desk and perched herself on top of it.<p>

"Come on Dave, didn't you hear Strauss? It's a half-day today _and_ she gave us tomorrow off! Let's start our long weekend already, before the woman's soul flees her body in terror."

Dave snorted at the imagery Emily had conjured up. "Just a minute Em, I just have to finish this report."

"But Dave," she whined, "We were supposed to be out of here by noon, and it's nearly one!"

"I know, but if I don't finish this, then I'll have to work on it tomorrow. You don't want that, do you?"

"No," she pouted, using her lips to her advantage. Some guys were leg men, others went for the boobs, but David Rossi loved a set of luscious, pouty lips and she knew how to use them.

"Jesus Em," he groaned as he signed his name to the bottom of the document. "That's dirty pool. What happened to our rule about keeping it professional at the office?"

She shook her head, "It doesn't apply after hours."

He was about to argue that it wasn't quite after hours yet, but before he could, she planted those lovely lips of hers onto his and he got lost in the moment. They both stayed like that for a minute, until they heard an "ahem" from the door way. Pulling apart, they saw their unit chief standing in the open door with a slight smile on his face.

"It's technically after hours, since you sent everyone home early," Emily said quickly as she turned bright red. Aaron Hotchner was well aware of their relationship, as was the rest of the team, and his only mandate was for them to keep it professional at the office. Beyond that, he didn't care what they did as long as it didn't interfere with the team dynamic.

"You're just lucky I'm not Strauss," Hotch said with a smirk. When she'd first caught wind of the illicit relationship, she'd seen it as a way to get rid of two large thorns in her side. What she hadn't counted on were all of Dave's connections; it seemed as though everyone above the rank of section chief owed him a favor and he'd called many of them in. As a result, the fraternization policy had been re-written and Strauss had been crushed; now it seemed as though she looked for any excuse to come down on the successful team.

"I'll let my big, bad boyfriend deal with Strauss," Emily told him with a smirk of her own.

"Anyway," Hotch said, glancing backwards into the outside corridor, "there are a couple of people here to see you, Dave." The unit chief moved out of the way and man dressed in a military uniform and a woman in a business suit walked in.

"David Rossi?" The soldier asked.

"Yes," Rossi confirmed, looking confused.

"My name is Lieutenant John Carter and I am a Casualty Assistance Officer stationed at Ft. McCoy in Wisconsin. Do you know a Mark Smith?"

"Of course, Mark is an old military buddy and a good friend," Dave told him with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"I think I'll leave the three of you alone to talk," Emily said quietly as she got up from the edge of Dave's desk. She took exactly one step before Dave's hand clamped around her wrist.

"Please stay Em; I doubt these nice people have come just to catch me up on my friend's life," Dave told her with a pleading look on his face. She nodded and pulled an empty chair up next to him as his two visitors sat down in the chairs across from his desk.

"I'm afraid you're correct sir," Lt. Carter told him. "I'm sorry to say that Major Smith was killed in action in Afghanistan."

"Jesus," Dave breathed as he tried to absorb the news. While Mark was a close friend, he hadn't seen the man in many years…it was almost impossible given both of their schedules. With Mark out of the country more than he was home and Dave on the road 200 days out of the year, it was hard to get together. Besides that, Mark was constantly being re-stationed around the country, so it wasn't like they could just meet at a local tavern for a beer…but still, he felt a profound sense of grief at hearing of his friend's passing. Thankfully, Emily chose that moment to give his hand a gentle squeeze and he managed to clear his head and ask the questions that needed to be asked since he knew the military would not fly two people to Quantico just to break the news to him about his friend's death.

"When did it happen?" He asked, still stunned.

"Just over four months ago," the lieutenant replied.

"Four MONTHS?" Dave asked incredulously. How in the hell hadn't he known about this before now?

The soldier nodded and then glanced around the room. "Agent Rossi, are you aware of what your friend's role was within the military?"

"I am; Mark was in an Army black ops unit," Dave replied and then saw the uncomfortable look on the lieutenant's face. "Anything we talk about here, I'll eventually tell her," Dave said, nodding towards Emily. "And I'm assuming the woman sitting next to you has clearance to hear about Mark's work, so let's not beat around the bush, okay?"

"Yes sir," Lt. Carter said. "As you can imagine, the men in the various black ops units are quite secretive and Major Carter was no exception. It took us this long to locate his will and we only learned about you because you're in it."

"Mark put me in his will?" Dave asked, confused. Sure they were good friends and Mark made a decent living, but his friend knew he was wealthy and he didn't need any money. "He shouldn't have done that, he should have left it to his…Oh God, Mark has kids, two girls! Do they know yet?"

"They were informed of his death soon after it happened, sir," Lt. Carter said. "That's actually why we're here; Major Smith didn't leave you any money in his will, sir, he left you his daughters."

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><p><strong><em>AN 2: And now for some shameful self-promoting...I've been nominated for the **Profiler's Choice Criminal Minds Awards **in numerous categories! Pease check out the final ballot at http : / / forum. fanfiction. net /topic /74868 /51253709 /1 / (remove the spaces) and be sure to vote by November 30, 2011._**


	2. Chapter 2

Peace, Love and War-Chapter 2

**~Don't forget to vote in the** **Second Annual Profiler's Choice Criminal Minds Awards hosted by Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum!**

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><p>There was total silence in the room as Dave absorbed this second shock. Mark had left him his kids? Why in the hell would he do that, he knew <em>nothing <em>about kids! Hell, he'd only seen Mark's girls a few times in their lives. As his brain struggled to process this new information, Lt. Carter spoke up.

"I take it Major Smith never discussed this with you?"

Dave nailed him with a glare. "Does it _look_ like I knew about this, Lieutenant? No, he never said a goddamn word! Why me? What about his family? Other friends?" It wasn't that Dave didn't want the girls, he just wasn't sure he could do it. Up until a few moments ago, his biggest decision was whether to stay at Emily's place for the weekend or his and now he was going to be a father? And not only that, he was going to be a father to two girls he hardly knew? He could barely remember to keep his dog fed, for Christ's sake, and now he was going to be responsible for two living, breathing human beings? It boggled his mind and he probably would have stated hyperventilating if Emily hadn't given his hand another squeeze. Just knowing she was there had an instant calming effect on him and he relaxed enough to listen to the lieutenant's answers.

"Major Smith had no living relatives sir, and most of his other friends were in his military unit. He was very specific in his will when he said that Hannah and Emma should go to you."

"What happens if they don't? What would happen to them if I didn't take them in?" Dave asked, not because he didn't want them, but because he was so overwhelmed at the prospect of becoming a father that he needed to know there were other options available to him.

"They would be placed in foster care, Agent Rossi," the woman next to Lt. Carter said before introducing herself. "I'm Marcia Jones and I'm with the Monroe County social services. Because Ft. McCoy is mainly a training base, they aren't exactly set up to deal with children so they called me for assistance. Since there are no living relatives and no one else was designated a guardian, the children would go into the foster care system. Emma, who's six, would have a decent chance of eventually being adopted but Hannah, who is almost fifteen, would most likely be placed in a group home until she turns 18."

Dave shook his head; there was no WAY he would let Mark's girls live that kind of life, but was he really the best person for the parenting job? He supposed he would find out. "Where are the girls now?"

"Well sir, that's the problem," Lt. Carter said. "We can't find them."

"What do you mean you can't find them? How long have they been missing?" Rossi asked loudly. "Mark died four months ago, have they been gone for that long?"

The lieutenant nodded his head. "Sir, may I speak freely?" He asked and Dave nodded. "You know these black ops guys, they are _very _paranoid and they're a thousand times worse when it comes to their families. As soon as we learned about Major Smith's death, we sent a notification team to their house, where they were living with a nanny. Per regulations, I was dispatched two hours later to assist with the various tasks that go along with a death and I was going to find out if the nanny was planning on keeping the girls or if she was planning on letting them go. When I got to the house, it was deserted."

"Where did they go?" Dave asked.

"I have no idea sir. I never got the nanny's name and my guess is that Major Smith was paying her in cash since there was no record of any checks or bank transfers made to anyone fitting the description of a nanny. I am also going to hazard a guess that Major Smith probably had a few safe houses set up and that he instructed the girls to hideout at one if something like this were to ever happen," Lieutenant Carter continued. "It took us awhile to work through the red tape just to find out which company he was attached to and his CO finally gave us a safe word so once we find the children, we can give it to them and they'll know we're not a part of some sinister operation."

"I knew Mark was paranoid, but this is crazy! Wait, are you _sure_ Mark's really gone?" Dave asked as a little bit of the paranoia seeped into _his _psyche. "What if he was right? What if-"

"Agent Rossi, Major Smith was in a small building that was hit by numerous remote rockets. While his body was never recovered, it is only because the building was incinerated pretty much instantaneously. All of the Intel and satellite images confirm his and seven of his men's deaths."

"Alright," Rossi said, resigned to the fact that one of his closest friends had died overseas. "What can I do to help find the girls?"

"Do you know where Major Smith may have had any of his safe houses?" The social worker asked.

Dave shook his head, "No clue; if he had any, he kept them a secret from me." The room got quiet after that until Emily spoke up a minute later.

"What about Garcia? If anyone can find them, it's her."

"With all due respect ma'am, we've had our best people searching for these girls for the past four months. I doubt this 'Garcia' person will be able to do better than the US military," Lt Carter said.

"None taken Lieutenant, but trust me, Garcia can find _anyone_." As she spoke, Emily stood up, dialed her cell phone and was quickly connected to the quirky technical analyst.

"Why Miss Emily Prentiss," Garcia greeted in a heavy southern accent. "As I live and breathe! What can I do for you on this glorious day?"

"Are you still in your office?" Emily asked.

"I am," Penelope confirmed. "Unfortunately one of my babies decided to get sick just as I was leaving for the day. Now I'll probably be here until late tonight."

"Thank God," Emily said. "Look PG, I'm going to send Anderson down with two people and we need you to find the two girls they are looking for as quickly as possible. The entire military has been searching for them for months and have come up with nothing, so you'll really have to work your magic, okay?"

"Pfft, the military," Garcia scoffed, "I could teach the military a thing or two. Trust me Emily, I'll find who they're looking for in two shakes of a lamb's tail." With that, Emily disconnected the call, opened the office door and waved to Anderson in the bullpen. Once the junior agent got to Dave's office, Emily instructed him to take their two guests down to Garcia's lair and they all left, leaving her alone with Dave.

"How are you doing?" She asked softly from her position by the door.

"Well let's see; in the last fifteen minutes I learned that one of my close friends is dead and that, at the ripe old age of 54, I'm going to be a father to two girls…you know, if we can find them." Emily heard the touch of hysteria in his voice and she quickly moved towards him.

"You can do this Dave," she said as she gripped his hand and gently pulled him from his chair. She led him towards the small sofa at the back of his office and they both sat down next to each other.

"I really don't think I can, Em," he told her. "What in the hell do I know about being a father? What do I know about raising GIRLS?"

"Kids don't come with instruction manuals, Rossi; most parents figure it out as they go along. At least these kids will be old enough to verbalize their wants and needs and, bonus, you won't have to go through the terrible twos with them and they'll be potty trained."

"But seriously, I'm an alcohol swilling, cigar smoking, solitary bachelor! I _can__'__t _be responsible for two living, breathing human beings. What if I screw up? What if something happens to them? How will I deal with-"

"You need to breathe Dave," Emily told him as she heard the hysteria build in his voice. "You're all these girls have in the world, do you really want them to end up in foster care? Especially knowing what we know about the system?"

That took some of the wind out of his sails and he exhaled deeply. "No, of course I don't want to see them get put in the system…I'm just not sure that I'm the right one for the job."

"You're the _only _one for the job," she reiterated, "And you'll be great at it. Besides, you'll have the entire team helping you through it, so it's not like you're going to be totally alone. Do you really think Penelope Garcia will be able to stay away? She'll be in heaven! She'll have two live Barbie dolls to dress up."

"Hell no! That woman is not coming anywhere _near_ those two girls with any of her clothes, hair dyes or cosmetics, understood?" He said firmly.

Emily grinned and was about to reply back when her cell phone rang. "Prentiss."

Garcia's chirpy voice came over the line, "I found them, Peaches."


	3. Chapter 3

_Peace, Love and War-Chapter 3_

**~This is a long chapter but I'll be out of town for the rest of the week and I probably won't have an internet connection, so I don't know if I'll have a chance to post before Monday. Enjoy!**

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><p>"<em>Ladies and gentleman, the aircraft door has been closed and at this time, all cell phones and electronics must be turned off. If you'll direct your attention to the front of the plane, the flight attendants will demonstrate the safety…"<em>

As Dave heard the announcement, he automatically swung his eyes towards the pretty flight attendant who was demonstrating how to buckle the safety belt, but he wasn't paying attention. No, his focus was on the news he'd received a few hours previous.

Once he and Emily had learned that Garcia had found the girls, they'd rushed to her lair. To everyone's amazement, the two kids were holed up in an apartment in downtown La Crosse and they were only steps from the very social services building that Ms. Jones worked in. Both she and the major had turned red when they learned that the girls had been hiding under their very noses and Dave had to bite back a grin.

The oldest girl, Hannah, had to know that social services was looking for them and she pretty much hid in plain sight, knowing they wouldn't think to look so close to their home base and that told him that the girls had spunk and they were cunning. It also showed they were intelligent and they knew how to keep secrets when the need arose and those were all features he liked in people. Sure, he would still take them in even if they turned out to be spoiled brats, but since they were military kids and they'd managed to evade them for so long, not to mention they had hidden in one of the worst parts of the city, he was fairly confident that they would be good kids.

Once they knew where the kids were, he'd had Garcia book them on the next available flights to WI. Thankfully, there were was one that would get them into the city at around six o'clock that evening and she'd worked her magic and gotten them on the flight. After that, he'd explained to Hotch what was happening and he'd secured the needed time off. Finally, he'd talked to Emily.

"I wish you would come with me Em," he said as he double checked his go bag. "I have no idea what to say to them."

"I know Dave, but I don't want to confuse them; we're not married or anything like that, I'm just your girlfriend."

"You know you're not 'just' anything to me," he growled as he mentally kicked himself in the ass for not proposing to her moths ago. Now if he did, he was afraid she'd see it as a way for him to get help with the girls.

"I know, but you need to ease into this situation with your new daughters. Don't worry, I'll be here for you when you get back, but for now you're on your own."

He sighed resignedly, "Take care of Mudgie for me?"

Emily nodded, "Definitely, he can keep Sergio company." The two pets got along surprisingly well together and Emily knew she wouldn't have any problems with the Labrador retriever. "I love you," she said as she wrapped her arms around him.

"I love you too," he responded as he hugged her back, "More than you can possibly imagine."

The sound of Ms. Jones' voice pulled him from his reverie. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you," he said across the aisle.

"I asked if you planned to stay in La Crosse with the girls, or if you planned to bring them back to the Washington area?" She repeated with a smile. Most of the time when children went to guardians, they went into a situation that was much worse than the one they were coming from, but in this case David Rossi had the funds to take care of the children, plus he seemed to already care about their well-being. They were lucky kids.

"I suppose that depends on the rules. Will I be able to take them back with me to DC? My job and home are there but if I can't take them back with me, I'll retire and move to WI," he told her and her heart warmed even more towards him.

"I'm sure the judge will allow you to take them out of state, so you don't have to worry about that," she told him.

"So what happens next?" Dave asked. "What happens once we find the girls?"

"Once we find them, you need to go before a judge in order to be named their temporary guardian," the social worker told him.

"Judge? Should I fly my attorney out here? And what's with the 'temporary guardian' title? I want to be their permanent guardian…hell, I want to be a parent!"

"I know you do Agent Rossi and temporary guardianship is the first step in that process. Once you're named temporary guardian and arrive back in DC, a local social worker will be assigned to your case. Once the required home visits and individual meetings have been conducted, a judge will appoint you their full guardian and then you can apply for adoption," she told him. "As for your lawyer…well, if there were other people vying for the girls then you would want representation but since you're the only one, you really don't need one," Ms. Jones continued. "We would normally have a regular court hearing but it can take weeks to get one scheduled, so I called in a favor and we're going to meet with a judge in his chambers tomorrow morning. We should have everything wrapped up by lunchtime."

What if things don't go smoothly? What happens then?" Dave asked.

Ms. Jones shook her head, "Everything will be fine; I really don't foresee any problems with this."

xxxxxxxxxx

"After we finger painted, Miss Josie read _Click, __Clack, __Moo,_ and then we made up our own stories when we saw the pictures and I said the hay looked like spaghetti and can we have spaghetti tonight Hannie? 'Cause we haven't had it in a loooong time and I really like the noodles and-"

"Whoa there, Em," Hannah interrupted with a laugh as her sister bounced happily next to her. She had just picked her up from the weekly activities that the library arranged for the younger kids and she was a bit hyper. Emma gripped Hannah's hand and swung it as they walked up the four floors to their small studio apartment. "I thought we were going to have hotdogs for dinner? Last night you were begging for them."

"Yeah, but that was before I saw the hay that looked like spaghetti. Please Hannie?" Emma pleaded.

Hannah knew they had a small amount of spaghetti noodles in their nearly empty pantry, and she also knew she didn't have the money to buy anymore but she figured there would be enough pasta and sauce for her little sister, so she gave in. "Sure Em, I think I can rustle up some spaghetti for you." She would skip dinner that night in order to stretch their food for a few more days, at least until she could go to the local food pantry.

"And after that can we watch_ Sesame Street?__" _The little girl asked as she hopped next to her sister.

"Sure," Hannah replied, knowing that her neighbor's unsecured wireless internet router would be on and they could watch it on her laptop. "Then after that, I know a certain girl who needs a bath. I swear, I could grow vegetables in the dirt on your-" she stopped mid-sentence as they turned the corner and saw three people standing in front of their apartment door. She was about to turn and sneak back down the stairs with Emma, but at that moment Lt. Carter caught sight of them and began speaking.

"Hannah and Emma Smith?" He asked. Hannah tried to play it cool and not respond, but Emma smiled and nodded enthusiastically.

"That's us!" She said brightly.

"Emma!" Hannah said sharply. "We don't talk to strangers, remember?" The little girl's smile faded a little.

"Sorry Hannie," she said.

"It's okay sweetie, just try and remember for next time, okay?" Emma nodded her head enthusiastically.

Once her little sister brightened again, Hannah focused on the three people standing outside of her apartment. "So you found us, and in just under four months; that's a job well done," she said sarcastically as she moved to unlock the door and Dave had to bite his lip to keep a straight face after hearing the teen's sarcasm as he was sure that he would've reacted the same way.

"You're not exactly easy to find, Miss Smith," Lt. Carter said as she opened the door to the apartment.

She snorted, "I've been living less than a mile away from the social services office, the only way I could've made it easier for you was if Emma and I had actually lived on the steps in front of the building."

Dave once again held back his laughter as he entered the apartment and then all humor left his body. The two girls were living in a 300 square foot, studio apartment that was sparsely furnished and had only one window. While the furnishings were less than ideal, he could see that Hannah had tried to make the apartment warm and inviting as evident by the brightly colored posters and various shapes on the walls, but it was still rundown and somewhat gloomy.

"Hannah," the social worker started, once they were inside, "I'm Marcia Jones from social services and this is Lieutenant Carter with the Army and David Rossi, who was-" She didn't get to finish before Hannah cut her off.

"I know who you are," she said thoughtfully as she stared at Dave. "You came to our house a couple of times. You're with the CIA, right?"

"FBI actually," he clarified. "I was a friend of your dad's and I was sorry to hear of his death." He was surprised when the teenager glared at him and then turned to her sister and softened her expression.

"Em, why don't you go read your library books on the bed?" She suggested.

"'Kay," the younger girl agreed as she held her books tightly to her chest and scurried across the small apartment to the one double bed that both girls shared.

As soon as her sister was out of earshot, the teen turned back to the adults and hissed, "My father is _not_ dead!"

The three of them looked at each other in confusion; had there been a miscommunication? Had the notification team somehow screwed up? "Hannah, what exactly did the notification team tell you?" Lt. Carter asked cautiously.

"They told me my dad had died in Afghanistan," she said.

"Okaaaay," the lieutenant said slowly. "But you believe he's still alive?" The teen nodded. "What makes you think that? Has he contacted you in any way? Has there been any indication that he's still alive?" Having seen the video of the attack that had killed Major Smith, Lt. Carter was convinced that the man had died but you could never be too sure when it came to the guys in black ops.

"He hasn't contacted us," Hannah admitted, "But he always told me that I should assume he's alive unless I see his dead body for myself and, what do you know? The government doesn't have his body."

"That's because he was killed in an intense bombing," Lt. Carter told her carefully. "There was no body to bring back but trust me Hannah, your father is dead."

"Trust you?" She asked incredulously. "Why should I trust you? I don't even know you."

"What about your nanny, Hannah?" Ms. Jones asked, changing the subject. "Is she around? Why haven't you been living at your house?"

"Dad always told me that if someone from the army ever told me he was dead, I should grab Emma and go to one of the safe houses he maintains and this one was the closest to school. As for the nanny, she was just some chick my dad paid to stay with us so he wouldn't get in trouble with social services; she split as soon as she realized her paycheck would no longer be deposited into her checking account every week."

"So how have you been living here? Doesn't anyone wonder about your age? How do you pay the rent and buy food?" Dave asked, wondering how the two kids had managed so far.

Hannah shrugged, "The landlord doesn't care _who_ lives here, as long as he gets his rent on time. After dad's 'death,' I paid most of the bills, including the rent, out of a hidden checking account he had. There wasn't much in it, but we've managed so far."

"Well you don't have to manage by yourselves any longer," Ms. Jones said brightly. "Your dad named Agent Rossi as yours and Emma's guardian in his will, so he'll be the one to take care of you from now on."

The teen scrutinized Dave from head to toe for nearly a full minute and Dave felt like he was a specimen under a microscope. "No thanks," she finally said, crossing her arms across her chest. "Emma and I are fine by ourselves."

The social worker looked surprised by the turn of events and she wasn't quite sure what to say, but Dave had no such qualms. "I don't think you understand Hannah," he said calmly. "This isn't up for negotiation; whether or not you believe your father is dead, you and Emma need an adult presence in your life and your dad thought I would be best for the job."

The teen narrowed her eyes at him, "We _don__'__t _need an adult in our lives. Hell, dad was gone much more than he was around and it's not like he hired the Mary Poppins type to look after us. I've been taking care of Emma since our mom died four years ago so I can handle it now!"

"But you don't _have _to handle it anymore!" Dave argued. "I have a large home in Washington, along with-"

"Washington?" Hannah interrupted. "As in DC? No WAY are we moving to DC with some guy I've only met twice and whom Emma's never met! I'll get emancipated; I'm almost fifteen, so I'll get emancipated and have the judge appoint me as Emma's guardian."

Dave was about to argue with her further, but Ms. Jones stepped in; she knew the teen didn't have a chance at emancipation, but maybe she needed to hear it from a judge so she could let it go. "All right Hannah, I've gotten us an appointment with a judge tomorrow morning at nine. While it won't be a formal guardianship or emancipation hearing, you can state your case to the judge and hear what he has to say, but I can tell you right now that he'll probably tell you that you don't have a case."

"Fine, Emma and I will meet you there tomorrow morning," Hanna agreed, thinking that as soon as the three adults were out of sight, she and Emma would pack up and move to another one of her father's safe houses. Her plans were dashed when Dave spoke next.

"You can stay here tonight, but rest assured I'll have a cop posted outside of your door before we leave, or you can stay with me in my hotel suite tonight; it's your choice."

"A cop, really? We've lived here for four months, we'll be fine," Hannah said snidely.

"The cop isn't for your protection, it's to make sure the two of you don't disappear again; the both of you were ghosts less than two hours after the notification team left your house and I'm not going to let that happen again."

"Fine," she snapped, pissed off that the FBI agent had practically read her mind, "We're sure as HELL not going with you, so I guess we'll stay here with the cop."

"Fine," Dave replied calmly, but inside he was panicking; he didn't even have custody of the kids yet and the older one already hated him! How had that happened so quickly? Hell, even his ex-wives liked him at first, it had taken years for them to hate him, but this girl seemed to dislike him from the moment she'd seen him.

"Okay," Ms. Jones said. "Would you like us to pick you up tomorrow morning?"

"I think we can find our way to the courthouse," Hannah said sarcastically as she gestured to the lone window. The view overlooked the Monroe County Courthouse that was directly across the street.

"Fine, don't be late," the social worker said. The three adults turned and left the apartment and a moment later, the door slammed shut behind them.

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><p><em>AN 2: Don't forget to vote in the Profiler's Choice Criminal Minds Awards! Please check out the final ballot at http : / / forum. fanfiction. net /topic /74868 /51253709 /1 / (remove the spaces) and be sure to vote by November 30, 2011._


	4. Chapter 4

Peace, Love and War-Chapter 4

**~Sorry for the long wait for the newest chapter...I think between some family issues and the Thanksgiving holiday, my brain exploded...or at least my muse decided to take an extra long coffee break.**

**~Reviews feed the muse!**

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><p>The next morning, Hannah and Emma showed up at the courthouse with five minutes to spare. Both Ms. Jones and Dave were relieved to see them since they weren't one hundred percent sure that Hannah couldn't have snuck them out past the police officer stationed outside of their apartment if she'd wanted to. Both of the adults tried making small talk with the girls, but Emma looked scared to be in such an official place, and Hannah looked downright pissed off, so the four of them waited for the judge in silence.<p>

Once they were called into the judge's chambers, they all took their seats in front of his desk. Judge Taylor looked like a kindly old grandfather, but Dave could tell the man was still sharp and he had a sternness about him that lurked underneath the surface.

As she sat down, Emma looked at the judge and said shyly, "I like your dress." Both of the adults and Hannah smiled as she said this and thankfully the judge joined in as well as he looked down at his black robe and then back up at the little girl.

"I like yours too," he said as his eyes crinkled. "It's much more colorful than mine." While the little girl's dress was very pretty, everyone could see that it was worn and it looked as though it had been repaired more than a few times.

"Thank you!" Emma responded enthusiastically and she stood up and gave a little twirl. "It's my _favorite_ and Hannah has been able to fix it for me a couple of times."

"Em, come sit back down," Hannah instructed softly and the little girl followed her order as she sat back down next to her.

"So Marcia," the judge started. "I thought this was going to be a straight forward guardianship hearing, but I understand there is some resistance towards that?"

The social worker nodded, "Yes your honor, Miss Smith wishes to petition the court for emancipation and then she further wishes to be granted temporary custody of Emma."

The judge eyed the teenager for a minute. "How old are you, Miss Smith?" He asked as a formality. He'd read the file the previous night and he knew that, on paper, David Rossi would make a fine guardian for the girls in front of him, so there was very little chance that he would not grant said guardianship, but he also knew he had to at least hear the girl out before ruling against her emancipation.

"I'm almost fifteen, sir," Hannah told him.

The judge shook his head slightly, "Do you have a job? Any means of income?"

"No sir," she said.

"What about your high school diploma? Your GED?"

"Not yet, your honor."

"How do you plan to support yourself and take care of your sister? You have no job and you'll be attending high school full time," the judge pointed out and Dave felt better knowing he was not seriously considering her request.

"I'll have my father's death benefits," she told him. "That will help me take care of Emma."

The judge shook his head, "Those benefits won't kick in until you're eighteen years old and even if you are able to gain emancipation, it will take months for the red tape to clear in order for you to get the money. How will you support the two of you until then?"

"We'll get by!" Hannah exclaimed, frustrated. "I've _always _taken care of Emma and I can still do it! I can use the money in dad's checking account until I get the death benefits! It's what we've been using up until now and we've gotten along just fine."

"How much is left in the account?" The judge asked.

"Enough," she said, avoiding eye contact with everyone in the room.

"What about you, Emma?" The judge asked, changing gears as he turned his gaze on the little girl. "How do you like living with Hannah?"

"I really like it," she said with a shy smile. "Hannie has _always _helped me with my stuff, even when I was a little girl, and she always makes sure I get to school on time and we always have things to do at home. She's great!"

"So where do you go when she goes shopping? Where do you stay when she's out with friends?" He would have asked about school, but it was summer vacation and he wasn't sure if the little girl would be clear in her answer.

"Oh Hannah never goes out with her friends alone! She's always with me and sometimes she takes me with her and I get to hang out with the older girls," the little girl informed him knowledgably. "And she takes me with her when she goes shopping too! A bunch of days ago, we went to Goodwill and I got a new dress and she got some new jeans." Hannah closed her eyes and shook her head slightly; the absolute LAST thing she wanted was for everyone to know how broke they were. She telepathically tried telling her little sister to shut up, but alas, it didn't work.

"Then, after that, we went to the grocery store and bought a couple of things," Emma continued, "And then after _that_, we went to a place where they just GAVE us a bunch of food! We didn't have to pay for it or anything! That's how we got to have spaghetti for dinner last night…well, I had it but Hannie'd had a big lunch so she didn't eat anything, but she must have had more for lunch when I wasn't looking since we both had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Hannie, can we have pb & j for lunch again today?" The little girl's train of thought had jumped the track again and it took the adults in the room a moment to catch up with her, but when they did, they were able to read between the lines of what the she'd said.

"Sure Em," the teen said quietly, knowing that any chance she'd had of emancipation had been blown out of the water by her sister's excited chattering.

"I would like to speak to Hannah alone," the judge said. Both he and the teen watched as Dave, the social worker and Emma left the office. As soon as the door closed behind them, Hannah began speaking quickly and somewhat loudly.

"Before you begin, there is nothing wrong with shopping at Goodwill, nor is there anything wrong with getting food from a food pantry; lots of people do it every day and they don't get their kids taken away because of it!" She told him. "And I know we don't live in the best place but there's a playground and a large library nearby, so Emma is able to have fun and dad drilled self-defense moves into me when I was younger, so I can take care of us!" Seeing that the judge was about to open his mouth to speak, Hannah kept going in her tirade. "I've been taking care of Emma for a long time and we've gotten by and I _don__'__t _need any help! I promised my dad that if anything ever happened to him, I would continue looking out for Emma and I have been; we don't need some strange guy to swoop in here and cart us off to Washington DC!"

Seeing that Hanna had finally paused in her rant, the judge quirked an eyebrow and calmly asked, "Are you finished?"

Hannah finally realized that she'd mouthed off to a judge…the judge who was going to decide her and her sister's fate and she wisely nodded silently.

"Good," Judge Taylor continued. "Ms. Jones informed me that you don't believe your father is actually dead?"

"No sir," Hannah said with a subdued shake of her head, "My father was in Special Forces and he always told me not to believe any death notices about him unless I see his body for myself and I haven't seen it yet."

"I can understand that," the judge said, thinking back to his time in the armed service. "And I would never tell you to give up hope, but you can't just wait for him to come back to you, you have to move on with your life."

"But-" the teen tried interrupting, but the judge put up a hand and continued.

"You also have no chance at emancipation," he told her and was not surprised by the scowl that came over her face. "You're fifteen, you have no job, no high school diploma or GED and you are dangerously low on funds. Not to mention, you flat-out lied to me earlier and I don't take kindly to that."

"When did I lie?" Hannah asked indignantly as she mentally reviewed the words she had spoken.

"I asked you how much money was left in your dad's account and you said there was 'enough.' Do you really think there's enough money if you're skipping meals? If you're constantly mending your sister's clothes? If you're getting free food at local food pantries? How did you get the food from there anyway?" He asked. "Don't you need an adult with you?"

"I always told them that dad was out waiting with the car so it wouldn't get stolen," Hannah admitted.

The judge just shook his head at the lie. "I've been reviewing Mr. Rossi's file and he seems like a good man. Heaven knows he has the means to take care of you and Emma and I am going to grant him temporary custody of you and your sister. I know it will be hard to move away from here, but I really think it's the best thing for the two of you."

"Really?" The teen asked sarcastically. "The best thing for us is to move across the country with some strange man? I don't know him, Emma doesn't know him and my father barely knew him! How is that the best option?"

"Your father knew him enough to entrust him with your lives," Judge Taylor said and plowed ahead when he saw the teen open her mouth to speak. "The other option is foster care, where there is a very real chance that you and your sister would be separated. Is that something you're willing to risk? David Rossi wants you girls and he's fighting to get you; do you really want to end up in a place where the people only took you in to collect a check from the state?"

"No," Hannah said softly after thinking about it for a moment; there was no WAY she would risk separation from her sister, so she hung her head in resignation. "We'll go with Mr. Rossi."

The judge smiled softly, "Good, let's get everyone in here and make this official, okay?"

xxxxxxxxxx

As Hannah spoke with Judge Taylor in his office, Dave, Ms. Jones and Emma waited outside in the chairs. After a minute or so, Emma began to get restless and Dave was eternally grateful that the social worker had had the foresight to bring along a coloring book and a box of crayons for Emma.

Dave watched as the little girl sat on the floor and colored and as he did, he was struck by a feeling of panic; how in the _hell _was he supposed to take care of two young girls, one of whom was less than thrilled with him? What did he know about their wants? Their needs? Hell, he hadn't even thought to bring something for Emma to do in case of a delay, what was he supposed to do with her on the plane ride back to DC? And what about her sister? It was clear that the teenager did NOT like him and he had an inkling that her feelings towards him would not improve very quickly. Combine that with his general lack of knowledge about child-rearing and it made for a perfect storm of 'what the fuck was I thinking?' Just as he was working himself into a real panic, his thoughts were interrupted by the little girl sitting on the floor next to his feet.

"Mr. Rossi?" She asked as she continued to color in her book. Dave looked down at her and saw that her little tongue was sticking out of the right corner of her mouth as she concentrated on staying in the lines of the picture. Just seeing that cuteness brought him back from the ledge of full-blown terror.

"What is it, Sweetheart?" He asked in a calm voice.

"Did you know my daddy?"

He nodded, "I did; I was friends with your daddy."

"How come I never saw you?" She asked, still coloring.

"Well, we lived in different cities so it was hard for us to meet up," he told her.

She looked up from her book, "They said my daddy is dead, but Hannie doesn't believe them."

"What do you think, Emma?" He asked carefully. The social worker next to him just looked on in observation.

"I dunno; I always listen to Hannie, but maybe she's wrong this time," she said softly and went back to coloring in her book. After a minute, she looked up at him again. "Mr. Rossi, are _you _going to be our new daddy?"

He glanced at the social worker for advice and Ms. Jones just nodded. "I'd sure like to be your daddy, Emma, but the judge has to decide that."

"Oh," she said and Dave could tell she was about to ask another question, but at that moment the door to the judge's office opened and he called them back into it. Once everyone was seated again, he began to speak.

"After speaking with Hannah, I have denied her request for emancipation and I am prepared to grant temporary guardianship of her and Emma Smith to you, Mr. Rossi, but I have a few concerns."

"What would those be, your honor?" Dave asked as his mouth went dry. What in the hell did his file say?

"You work long hours and you are frequently out of town. Now I know that Hanna and Emma are used to that type of lifestyle, since their father frequently left them in the care of nannies, but I would hate for them to go back to that way of life if I can help it. How do you plan to handle your demanding career and the needs of two girls?"

"Your honor, I have already spoken to my boss and we have agreed that I will work at the office from 9:00am-3:00pm and then the rest of the time I will work from my home office, that way I will be available for the girls before and after school. Also, my team travels quite a bit, but he has agreed to let me work from Quantico when I can and when I'm not there, I plan on hiring a part-time nanny so the girls won't be alone. I know it's not an ideal situation and if it doesn't work out for us, I will explore my other options within the Bureau."

"All right," Judge Taylor nodded, feeling good about placing the two children in what seemed to be a very positive environment. "Do you have any objections?"

"Not an objection, per se," Dave said, "But I want it known that I am involved in a relationship with a woman. We're not married, but we're serious and due to our unpredictable and intense work hours, she frequently spends the night at my house. I'm bringing this up now because I don't want it to become a problem further down the road."

The judge looked at Ms. Jones and she shrugged; in the whole scheme of things, David Rossi's declaration was fairly small. The judge seemed to agree, because he said, "I don't foresee a problem with that, Mr. Rossi. Is there anything else?"

"No your honor."

"All right then, I hereby grant you temporary guardianship over Hanna and Emma Smith. Ms. Jones will set you up with a social worker in Washington and, after all of the necessary appointments and home visits have been completed, you can apply for full guardianship," Judge Taylor told him.

"Thank you sir," Dave said as he shook the judge's hand.

"Just take care of them, Mr. Rossi, they've been through a lot."

"I will, sir," Dave promised. The social worker led them out of the judge's chambers and into the hallway where she gave Dave her card and told him she would be in contact with him the following week with his new social worker's information. She then bid the girls farewell and left to answer an urgent phone call from her office. Once she left, Dave found Hannah and Emma staring at him, as if asking 'what now?' And Dave realized he didn't have a clue as to what to do next.

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><p><strong>AN 2:** **Have you voted in the Profiler's Choice Criminal Minds Awards? There are only a few days left! Please check out the final ballot at http : / / forum. fanfiction. net /topic /74868 /51253709 /1 / (remove the spaces) and be sure to vote by November 30, 2011.**


	5. Chapter 5

Peace, Love and War-Chapter 5

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><p>"<em>Ladies <em>_and __gentlemen, __we __are __beginning __our __descent __into __the __Washington __DC __area __and __at __this __time __all __cell __phones __and __electronics __must __be __turned __off, __all __personal __items __must __be __stowed __and __all __trays __must __be __returned __to __their __upright, __locked __positions. __We __will __be-__"_

"Mr. Dave?" Emma said. "I can't get my tray back up!" The little girl was clutching her crayons and coloring books in one arm while trying to wrestle with the tray with the other and Dave could see that she was about to lose both battles.

"Here Em, I'll help you," Hannah said from the seat next to her. Because their plane had left from La Crosse, it was a regional jet and did not have first class seating, so the three of them were sitting in a row of three seats with Dave on the aisle, Emma in the middle and Hannah at the window. Thankfully the flight had gone smoothly, other than a few tears at the beginning of the flight before Emma's ears had adjusted to the pressure.

Dave saw that Hannah was also struggling to hold her laptop and her book. "Don't worry Hannah, I've got this," he said as he locked the tray into place. Hannah, who was accustomed to helping her younger sister, shot him a glare as she stuffed her computer into her tote bag and slid it underneath the seat in front of her.

When he saw the glare the teen gave him, Dave sighed quietly; he wasn't quite sure what he'd done to piss the girl off, but she seemed have a more than healthy feeling of animosity towards him and he knew it would be awhile before she came around. He also knew that he would have to tread lightly with Emma since Hannah had been her primary caretaker for the last four months and, from what Dave could tell, probably much longer than that. He could tell it would be an uphill battle for Hannah to relinquish her parental role and he knew he would have to go slowly, but he also knew he had to assert himself as the parent. Hannah may have been the one in charge until now, but it was time for her to back off and let him do his new job.

"Hannie, my ears hurt again," Emma whined as she tugged on her right earlobe.

"Here, chew some gum," the teen said, holding out a stick of Juicy Fruit. "It will help."

Dave watched as the little girl put the gum in her mouth and began smacking loudly; he wasn't sure if it was helping her ears, but it was definitely taking her mind off of the pain. After a moment, he looked from Emma to Hannah and he noticed the older girl was clutching the armrests, she had her eyes closed and she looked shaken.

"Are you okay Hannah?" He asked in concern.

"I'm fine," she said, not opening her eyes. "I just don't like landing."

"Want to trade places with me?" He asked, thinking that maybe she could distract herself if she didn't have the window next to her.

"No, I'm fine," she repeated, a bit testily this time. "Besides, you're going to want to keep an eye on Emma now that she has gum."

"What?" He asked in confusion and then glanced down at his new daughter. In the ten seconds that he hadn't been paying attention to her, she'd managed to get the chewing gum all over hands and face and was about to touch her hair when he quickly blocked her movement. He sighed, reached for his water and a handkerchief and began cleaning her up but it was hard to stay annoyed at her, especially since she kept smiling at him and giggling every time he wiped her chin, saying it tickled. As the plane landed, he realized that in less than forty-eight hours the little girl had managed to firmly wrap him around her little finger…God help him during her teenage years!

Twenty minutes later, the three of them stepped off of the plane and into the busy DC National airport. Both girls watched in awe as people in business suits rushed around them and they both looked overwhelmed.

"Luggage is this way," Dave said, pointing towards security. Emma, who was still enthralled by all of the activity, slipped her tiny, and slightly sticky, hand into his.

"We gotta hold hands when it's this busy," she told him knowledgeably. Dave smiled and gave her tiny hand a small squeeze; while he'd never had any children, it wasn't because he hadn't wanted them it had just never worked out with any of his wives. But now, seeing the two girls standing next to him, he finally knew what all of his friends with kids were talking about. Sure, the two girls weren't biologically his and he'd only known them for a few days but the pull, the intense feeling of protectiveness was there and he knew he would take a bullet for either one of them. More importantly, he knew he would inflict unimaginable pain on anyone who dared to mess with them.

"Come on Hannah!" Emma's impatient voice brought him out of his reverie, "We gotta hold hands!" Since Dave was between the two girls, Hannah couldn't take her hand and she knew her sister would stand there yapping until she took _someone__'__s _hand_,_ so she reluctantly slid her hand into Dave's and they started towards the luggage area.

xxxxxxxxxx

Fifty minutes after landing, they'd gotten the girl's suitcases off of the conveyor belt and they made their way through the luggage area and into the parking garage. The two girls held hands while Dave pushed the cart that held their three suitcases. He was surprised that they had so few belongings, but he knew that since their father had died and they had taken off for a safe house, army personnel had gone into their house on the base and had packed up all of their personal items and had put them into storage. As soon as they were home and he had time to think, he would contact the military about getting everything shipped to his house.

Once they reached his SUV, he looked at the large vehicle and swore. "Crap, I never thought…does Emma need to be in a car seat?" He asked Hannah.

"NO!" The little girl said loudly, but unfortunately for her, Hannah said, "She should be, but I guess we'll have to chance it this time since you probably don't have one."

"Damn, I don't; I'll get one for you as soon as possible, okay honey?" He asked rhetorically as he ruffled the younger girl's hair.

"NO! I don't want one! I HATE my car seat! Only babies ride in car seats and I'm a big girl!"

"Emma," Hannah said sternly, "We've had this argument before; the car seat keeps you safe and you have to ride in one until you're a little bit bigger, otherwise you can't ride in the car at all. Now, this one time you don't have to ride in the special seat, since Dave obviously couldn't figure out that a little girl like you wouldn't fit properly in the seats of his huge SUV," Dave rolled his eyes at her sarcasm, "But once he finally gets a seat, you'll have to ride in it. Okay?"

"Fine," she pouted as she climbed into the car. As he loaded the luggage into the cargo area, Dave had to admit that Hannah knew how to handle her sister and he hoped he could learn a few tricks from her.

As they drove towards his house in Alexandria, the two girls sat in the back seat and stared out of the windows in wonder as the nation's capital passed by. Everything was so big and there were so many people! Hannah knew it would take her months to explore the city and she was looking forward to it.

They finally pulled into the driveway of Dave's large, colonial style house and as soon as he turned the engine off, they could all hear excited barks coming from the house.

"This is where you live?" Emma asked in awe as they all stepped out of the car and onto the driveway. The girls, who had only lived in base housing, couldn't believe how big the house was.

"This is where _we _live," Dave corrected as he lifted the suitcases out of the vehicle. "Are either of you allergic to dogs?" He was almost afraid of their answers. He knew that if he had to choose, he would choose the girls over his beloved hunting dog, but it would break his heart to give Mudgie away. Thankfully both girls shook their heads. "Good! That barking you hear is my dog, Mudgie. Mudge is a big, chocolate lab who thinks he's still a puppy. He barks loudly, but he is very friendly. In fact, he'll probably try to lick you to death." As he said this, he could see the dog at the front window watching them with a frenzied look on his face.

As soon as the three of them walked through the front door, Mudgie ran up to greet them. He nearly knocked Emma over in his rush to greet his master and after that, he turned to the girls with an expectant look on his face. Both Hannah and Emma did not disappoint him and they petted and hugged the dog until Dave was convinced his fur would come off. Finally, he pulled Mudgie away from them and got a short bark in return.

"Come on, let's get your stuff up to your rooms," he said as he started for the stairs. Both girls followed him and, less than a minute later, he set Emma's things down in her room.

"This whole big room is just for me?" She asked, twirling around with her arms outstretched.

Dave nodded, "Yup. I know it's brown, but we can repaint it this weekend, Hannah's room too."

"Can I paint it pink? With sparkles? All princesses need sparkles!" She told him excitedly.

"Sure honey, we can paint it whatever color you would like and we'll also get some prettier furniture in here. Now let's get Hannah settled in her room." With that, he led them through a door on the right side of the room, which led to a large bathroom. "The two of you will have to share a bathroom…sorry about that, but at least it has two sinks." The girls barely heard him; instead they were staring at the large bathtub in awe.

"Look at the tub, Hannie!" Emma said excitedly. "I can go swimming!"

Hannah nodded her agreement as she continued to stare longingly at the bathtub. She used to love taking long baths at night as a way to relax, but their crappy 'safe house' apartment hadn't had one so she hadn't taken an actual bath in almost five months. She knew that she would be trying the tub out later that night.

Dave opened the second bathroom door and led them into Hannah's room, which was exactly the same as Emma's, except the walls were a tan color. "We'll also redo your room Hannah, so think about what color you would like, okay?" The teen nodded. "I'll let you two stay up here and unpack while I make dinner. Is spaghetti and meatballs okay?"

Emma nodded enthusiastically while Hannah just shrugged. As he went down the stairs, Dave was happy that at least one of his kids liked him, but for the millionth time he wondered if Hannah would ever drop her defenses around him.

xxxxxxxxxx

Two hours later, after he showed the girls the rest of the house, including the large backyard, they sat down to dinner. After saying grace, everyone piled their plates high with pasta and then Dave got up and grabbed a block of cheese out of the fridge. He grated some onto his spaghetti and then turned to Emma. "Would you like some?" He asked. Emma nodded enthusiastically and Dave was just about to grate some onto her food when Hannah, who had been busy petting a begging Mudgie, yelled "Stop!"

Dave froze and looked over at the girl. "What's wrong?"

"She can't have cheese, neither of us can, we're allergic to milk."

He set the cheese down on the table. "Really?" Jesus, it was their first dinner together and he'd nearly poisoned them! Quickly he ran through the sauce, meatball and pasta recipes and was relieved that dairy was not in any of them.

"Yeah," Hannah said snidely. "It seems that a _guardian_ should know that about his kids, don't you think? Maybe you should have read over our files a little better."

Dave took a deep breath in order to stay calm and not snap at his new daughter. "I _did_ read your files Hannah, and that nugget of information was not in them."

"Whatever."

After that, the three of them ate dinner mostly in silence, partly because of Dave's gaffe and Hannah's reaction, but mostly because the three of them were exhausted. It had been a long couple of days and everything was finally catching up to them In fact, Emma nearly fell asleep at the table but before she could face plant into her plate of food, Hannah caught her and leaned her back in her seat.

"Tired, Hannie," she mumbled as she rubbed her eyes.

"I know you are sweetie; let's get you to bed." She stood up at the same time as Dave did.

"I've got her Hannah, why don't you sit back down and finish eating?" He said, trying to make it sound like a suggestion, but it really wasn't. He knew this was one of the ways he needed to assert himself as the parent and the sooner he did it, the quicker he would get used to his new role.

Hannah wanted to argue with him, but she knew it would be a losing battle, so she just glared at him and gave him a sharp "Fine!"

With a nod, Dave scooped the little girl into his arms and carried her up the stairs. It was the first time he'd held her and he was amazed that such a little body had so much energy! They got to her room and he helped her change into her pajamas. Then, as he laid her on her bed and tucked her in, she mumbled, "Story." He started telling the story of the three bears, but she was asleep before Goldilocks tried sitting in the first chair. He stayed in the room for a few minutes and watched her sleep before leaving to go back down to the kitchen.

Hannah, who had finished eating right after Dave had taken her sister up to her bedroom, had cleared the table and was washing the dishes. A large part of her was pissed at him for stepping on her toes with Emma since she had _always _been the one who tucked her into bed, but a small part of her was confused by his actions. It was weird living with someone who seemed to genuinely care about their happiness and well-being. Their dad had been out of the country for most of their lives and even when he'd been home, it was always about doing things for themselves, for being self-reliant. Sure, she knew he'd loved them, but he hadn't exactly been a warm, loving, teddy bear. With Dave it was different, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that.

She tensed up when she heard him re-enter the kitchen. "You didn't have to do that Hannah, I would've cleared the table." She stared at him with a confused look on her face; it was _always _her job to cook and clean, her dad had _never _offered to help, not even when she was sick, so she didn't quite know how to respond to Dave.

The profiler, seeing the confusion and disbelief on her face, decided to change the subject. "Do you know what color you want to paint your room? I was thinking we could pull up the carpeting to expose the hardwood floors underneath."

"Don't bother," she said as she loaded a plate into the dishwasher.

"Hannah, I want you to be comfortable living here and I know the rooms are decorated to my taste, so-"

"Look, we both know how this is going to go, so don't pretend we're going to be here for the long haul," the teen interrupted.

Dave paused before he spoke. "Oh? How do you see this 'going'?" He asked calmly.

"You don't like me and I don't like you and I'll be eighteen in just over three years and then Emma and I will be out of your hair, if you don't get rid of us before then, so quit pretending that we're going to be some kind of happy family, okay?"

"Hannah, whether you believe it or not, I _do_ care about you and your sister and I see this as anything but temporary," he told her. "I am not going to 'get rid of' you or your sister and I certainly don't expect you to move out when you turn eighteen. I know that right now I am your temporary guardian, but I plan on making that permanent as soon as possible and I _do _plan to adopt both of you. I know you miss your dad, and I know I can't replace him, but I'm hoping you'll give me the chance to make your life as happy as possible."

The teenager just stood in shock for a moment; that was probably one of the most caring things anyone had said to her since her mother died and she wasn't sure what to say back to him. To her horror, tears sprung to her eyes and she refused to let him see her cry, so she said, "I'm going to bed," and then turned and ran up the stairs.


	6. Chapter 6

Peace, Love and War-Chapter 6

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><p>"Mr. Dave?" Emma whispered as she crept into the large master bedroom. Dave, who had lain awake worrying for most of the night, was finally sleeping soundly and didn't move. The six year old moved to his side and shook his arm slightly. "Mr. Dave?" She whispered more forcefully as she stood above him. Still nothing. Sighing in frustration, the little girl lifted his left eyelid and yelled, "Mr. Dave!"<p>

That woke Dave up. Sitting bolt upright in bed, he looked around in confusion for a moment before he finally focused on his new little girl. "What is it Emma? What's wrong?" He asked in alarm, wondering if she was hurt or scared.

"You don't have nothing to eat in your house," she told him with a small pout, "And I'm hungry."

"I don't have anything to eat," he corrected and then thought about what she'd said. She was right; since he'd been out of town working various cases and then in WI picking them up, his kitchen was pretty empty; the only reason he'd been able to make a decent dinner the previous night was because he'd had all of the ingredients in his freezer, but he was fairly sure he didn't have much else that was edible.

Running his hand down his face, he glanced at the clock and saw that it was only six-thirty in the morning. "How about we wait until Hannah wakes up and then I'll take you both out for breakfast?" He suggested as he pulled her onto his lap.

"She's already up," she told him as she leaned her back against his chest like she'd been doing it her entire life. Dave felt a rush of affection for the little girl and he finally realized that this was what he'd been missing his entire life; the trust and love of a child.

"Hannie's in the shower," Emma continued, "And I'm hungry nooooowwww."

Dave could hear the whine in Emma's voice and he tried to cheer her up. "Oh, you're hungry now, are you?" He asked as he began to tickle her ribs. "How about some tickles to fill you up?" Emma began shrieking with laughter as she twisted and turned and tried to tickle him back. Finally, after a minute or two of the tickle assault, they both stopped to catch their breath and they looked up to see Hannah standing in the doorway with a displeased look on her face.

"Emma, I _told _you not to bother Mr. Dave," she said. "I'm sure we could've found some dry cereal or something in the cabinets."

"It's not a problem Hannah," Dave said, gesturing for her to come into the room. She hesitated for a moment, but finally came into the bedroom and sat down on the bed so she was facing her sister and new guardian. "I was thinking we could do a big shopping today," he continued. "Obviously we need food and I don't really have many girly things in the house, not to mention you both need new clothes and you should both start thinking about colors and furniture for your rooms. You also need-"

"We have clothes!" Hannah exclaimed and Dave was surprised to see that she looked offended. "And Emma has toys! I wasn't _completely_ irresponsible and stupid when I took care of her."

"I'm sorry Hannah," he said carefully, knowing the girl already disliked him and their living situation, the last thing he wanted to do was make her feel worse about things. "I think you took _wonderful _care of Emma while the two of you were alone. I just meant that I have the money to get more clothes, toys and books for you and your sister and I would like to do so."

"Whatever," she muttered as she stared at the bedspread.

"I know Emma said she wants to paint her room pink; have you given any thought to what you want to do with yours?" He asked.

The teen shrugged; even though he'd been nice to her and had told her he wanted them permanently, Hannah couldn't fully believe that this virtual stranger wanted to take her and her sister in as his kids. Not only did he want them to live with him, he wanted them to live in the lap of luxury. She knew from living with her dad that things could change in an instant and she didn't want to become too comfortable in the large house and she sure as _hell_ couldn't let herself become too comfortable with Dave…no, in the end it was about her and her sister and that was it. "I haven't really thought about it."

"You should paint it yellow, Hannie," Emma exclaimed from her position on Dave's lap. "You always said you wanted a sunny, yellow bedroom."

"We can do yellow," Dave told her and in spite of her earlier thoughts she found herself smiling and nodding as she imagined her yellow room with crisp white baseboards and furniture.

"I can still make mine pink, right?" Emma asked excitedly and Dave nodded.

"We can paint your room pink, sweetheart," he reassured her and then glanced at the clock again. "You both realize it's only quarter to seven, right? What are you doing up so early?"

Hannah shrugged, "Dad always made us get up at six in the morning."

"Well here you don't; here you can sleep in on the weekends and during school breaks," he told them and then watched as Emma looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Really?" She breathed, "I don't have to get up before the sun no more?"

"Anymore," both Dave and Hannah corrected in unison. "No, you sure don't; at least not until school starts," he told her.

"But…but we _always _have to be up early," Emma said, confused. "Remember Hannie, even when you were sick last summer, daddy played the bugle music before the sun came up."

"I know Em, but Mr. Dave has different rules than dad," she told her. No matter how much she disliked Dave, the prospect of sleeping in occasionally appealed to her.

"It's just 'Dave' guys, okay?"

"Okay just Dave," Emma giggled. Her giggles turned into outright laughter as Dave began tickling her again. Hannah, seeing her sister happy and laughing, smiled despite herself and when Dave saw that, he felt a surge of hope that he might eventually win the teenager over.

"Didn't you tell the judge that you have a girlfriend who practically lives with you?" Hannah asked as she looked around the bedroom. She saw a few blouses hanging in the open closet, a picture of her new guardian and a black haired woman on the dresser and a small bottle of girly looking lotion on the nightstand.

"I do," he affirmed as he, once again, ended the tickle assault against the youngest girl.

"Well where is she? Are you ashamed of her or something? Or is it us? Do you want to make sure we're good enough before you introduce us to her?"

"I'm not ashamed of you _or _her," he said firmly, as he hugged Emma even tighter against him. "She didn't want to overwhelm you with another new person so soon after you arrived in DC. If you're okay with it, I'll introduce you to her and the rest of my team when we go out this afternoon."

"Fine," Hannah shrugged, but Emma's excitement made up for it.

"Your team?" She asked brightly. "Is it a baseball team?"

"No honey," Dave said, barely holding back his laughter at the thought of his team playing baseball. "My team is made up of the people I work with. Emily is part of my team and we all sometimes socialize after work so you'll be seeing them a lot."

"Kinda like daddy's team, right Hannie?" The older girl nodded and then Emma got a worried look on her face. "Are there mean people on your team?"

"No, they are all very nice. Why? Were there mean people on your daddy's team?"

The little girl's eyes widened and she nodded and looked at her sister. "Remember Mr. L-"

"Let's get you dressed, Em," Hannah interrupted and all at once Dave's radar went on high alert. The teen was obviously uncomfortable discussing her father's old team, but why? He pushed that worry to the back of his head and focused on the task at hand.

"That's a great idea; you two do that while I jump in a quick shower, okay?" Both of the girls nodded and got off of the bed. Emma, who seemed to have endless energy, ran toward her bedroom while her sister followed at a more leisurely pace.

"Thanks for your help with your sister, Hannie," he said as he got up from the bed. He paused as he saw the girl stop dead in her tracks and then turned around and gave him a lethal glare.

"She can call me Hannie," Hannah said coldly as she jerked her thumb towards her sister's room. "And my dad can call me Hannie; that's it."

"All right, I apologize for my mistake," Dave said cautiously, not wanting to alienate the girl even further.

"Apology accepted," she said in the same cold voice before she left the room completely. As soon as she was gone, Dave let out a sigh; this parenting thing was going to be a lot more difficult than he thought it would be.

xxxxxxxxxx

Three hours later, after a large grocery shopping, which had included many dairy alternative products that Dave hadn't known existed, the three of them walked into the bullpen at the BAU. Emma, who seemed overwhelmed by all of the people and desks, slipped her hand into Dave's and held on tightly. Even Hannah seemed less than sure of herself and she stuck closer to Dave more than she had since they'd met.

Just as Dave was about to lead them over to Derek's desk, the entire bullpen heard a loud shriek and then suddenly Garcia was standing next to the three of them.

"Omigod!" She exclaimed as she stared at the two girls. "Are these your new daughters? Emily told me you were going to get them, but I didn't expect them to be so cute!"

Dave grinned as he watched both of the girl's eyes widen at the sight of their overzealous technical analyst. "Girls, this is Penelope Garcia, our technical genius; Garcia this is Hannah and this is Emma," he told her, gesturing towards each girl. "And yes, they are my new daughters."

Garcia embraced Hannah in a hug that left the girl breathless. "You can call me Penelope or just Garcia, or even Pen; I answer to just about everything," she told them as she released Hannah and pulled her sister into a bone crushing hug. "We are going to have SO much fun together!"

Dave caught the worried look that Hannah flashed him and smiled even harder. "Don't worry Han, she's legit." Without thinking, he'd given her a nickname but thankfully she either didn't notice or she didn't care, all she did was nod and look a bit more reassured; it's not that she didn't like Penelope, she was just a bit overwhelming.

As Garcia was hugging Emma, Hannah noticed the dark haired woman from the picture in Dave's room enter the bullpen and stand off to the side. She broke away from Dave and her sister and went up to the new woman. "You're Dave's girlfriend, right?"

Emily smiled and nodded. "You must be Hannah," she said as she looked the girl up and down. "I love your jeans."

Hannah, who had been worried that Emily would be stuck up or judgmental, smiled slightly in relief. "Thanks," she said as she looked down at the embroidery on the pants, "I picked them up at a thrift store back home."

Emily nodded in approval, "I _love _second hand stores, you can find a lot of funky things in them. There are also some cool boutiques nearby that sell some awesome clothes. We should go sometime."

Hannah nodded almost eagerly; she thought that all of Dave's friends would be stick up the ass, g-men; she sure as _hell _never expected that his girlfriend might actually be kinda cool. "Dave is taking us shopping today, but I'm gonna go ahead and guess that he's a Macy's kind of guy and not a 'funky, independent store' kind of shopper."

Emily snorted in laughter, "You've got that right," she said but she didn't correct the girl on Dave's preferred store. With his money, the older agent preferred much higher end stores than Macy's.

"Dave's taking the two of you shopping today?" Garcia asked, perking up as she focused in on, what to her, was the most important part of their conversation. Dave nodded and Garcia hopped up and down in glee. "Can we come? Better yet, why don't you stay here and work on your paternity leave paperwork while Em, Jayje and I take them shopping?"

"You _do _realize we're right in the middle of a work day, don't you Garcia?" Hotch asked as he stepped up to the group.

"Oh pooh," the technical goddess said with a wave of her hand. "We're actually caught up on the paperwork for a change. Surely you can spare the three of us for a few hours?"

Hotch thought about what Garcia said for a moment and then nodded; it was a rare that the team had downtime and he didn't want to make his people sit in the office just for the sake of being there. "I suppose it wouldn't kill me to give everyone the afternoon off."

"Are you okay with this Hannah?" Dave asked. Emma seemed enraptured by Garcia and she seemed excited to go off with her but if Hannah wasn't comfortable going off with the three women of the team, then it wasn't happening. To his surprise and relief, she shrugged and nodded.

"Sure, shopping is shopping, right?" The teen responded and was startled by a loud burst of laughter from Penelope.

"Oh sweetie, you've never done shopping the right way, but that will change after today," she told her with a grin. Her grin grew when Dave reluctantly handed her his platinum Visa card and she happily took Emma's hand and started for the bullpen exit with Emily and Hannah following behind them. "Let's go collect JJ and we can be off on our shopping extravaganza!"


	7. Chapter 7

Peace, Love and War-Chapter 7

**~Don't forget to sign up for the 2012 Valentine's Day Challenge on the Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum, you have until February 4 to sign up.**

**~Thanks for all of the reviews of this story. I haven't had time to personally respond to all of them, but they are a great motivator!**

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><p>"Ooooh, you should totally try this on, Hannah!" Garcia said excitedly as she pulled a wine colored dress off of the rack of clothes in front of her.<p>

"Another dress?" The teen complained; they'd been shopping for hours and she'd already gotten numerous pairs of jeans and slacks, many pairs of shorts, a few skirts and a seemingly endless number of tops. Along with that, she'd gotten more shoes than she'd ever owned in her life and now the crazy computer lady wanted her to try on her third dress of the day?

"Trust me Sweets, I know you're content to live in jeans and t-shirts, but there will come a time when you'll have to dress up and it'll be nice to be able to just reach into your closet for something to wear," Penelope said perkily as she eyed up yet another dress for the girl.

"That'll look really pretty on you, Hannie," her sister agreed as she twirled around in the light purple dress they'd gotten at the first store they'd visited. "Try it on!" While Hannah wished she was just about anywhere else, Emma was in her element, both with the shopping and with Garcia. Both were hyper and exuberant about what they were doing and it was as though they were long lost sisters. If Emily and JJ hadn't been there to calm things down a little, Hannah would've gone insane.

"Fine," she snarked as she walked towards the dressing room. "But this is the LAST thing I'm trying on. Got it?"

"She's only been with him for two days but she already sounds like Dave," Garcia giggled. She sobered up a little when she saw the deadly glare the girl shot her before she disappeared into the fitting room. Once she was out of sight, Penelope and Emma resumed their giggles and the older woman knew she'd found a mini-BFF in the little girl.

Hannah grumbled under her breath the entire time she was in the changing room; she was hungry, tired and all she wanted to do was go back to her new home and soak in the huge tub for a little while. She didn't know why she was so tired now that they were in DC, but she figured it was her bodies' reaction to the upheaval in her life. Also, if truth be told, she knew that some of it was just the relief of not being in charge anymore…of having someone to take care of them, but it would take extreme torture for her to admit that to _anyone_.

"How are you doing in there, Hannah?" JJ asked. While she liked JJ because she was calm and collected, Emily was Hannah's favorite because she seemed laid back but also understanding and she didn't talk down to her like most grown-ups did.

"Just give me a second," she called back as she struggled with the zipper on her back. After wriggling around like a fish out of water, she finally got the stupid thing zipped and stepped out into the main dressing room area.

"It's gorgeous," Emily told her. "That's a great color on you." The dark red fabric matched her skin tone and made her look almost radiant, while the style and cut of the dress was age appropriate.

"It really looks good on you, Hannah," JJ told her as she turned to look at herself from other angles in the three-way mirror.

"It does, doesn't it?" The teen murmured. She had to admit, as much as the perpetually perky woman annoyed her, Garcia knew how to pick out clothing. She continued to stare at herself in the mirror and then she noticed the price tag. "I can't get this, it's too expensive!"

"Oh pooh," Garcia said with a small wave of her hand. "Ol' Dave is richer than God; trust me, he won't even blink an eye at this credit card bill."

Hannah just shook her head in wonderment; she had gone from shopping at Goodwill to shopping at high-end shops and boutiques in a matter of days. The idea of not having to worry about money took a little getting used to.

"You _have_ to get that dress Hannie," her sister said emphatically. "You look like a model in it."

"Okay Em, I'll get it," she promised as the little girl's compliment made her feel all warm inside.

"Yay!" Both she and Garcia cheered at the same time. "Now you just need accessories to go with it!"

Seeing Hannah's expression fall, JJ stepped in. "Why don't we let Hannah change back into her regular clothes while we look at the jewelry?" She suggested. Both Garcia and Emma nodded eagerly and, as the three of them left the dressing room area, Hannah shot the blond woman a look of thanks.

"Need some help getting unzipped?" Emily asked her, once they were alone. She nodded and turned around so her back was facing Emily. The older woman unzipped the garment down to her lower back and, as she did, the dress separated and she got a glimpse of the teenager's bra. While not dirty, the garment looked tattered…like it had seen much better days.

"We should get you some new bras and underpants," she said and was surprised when the girl whipped around and shook her head.

"No, I'm fine, really," she insisted as she held the front of the dress in place.

"It's not a problem, we're already at the mall and we could easily stop at Victoria's Secret," Emily told her, a little confused by her reaction. She watched as Hannah made a face at the suggestion and asked, "What's the matter?"

"It's…nothing."

"It's obviously something; what's up?"

"It's just…." Hannah hesitated, but she knew that the profiler wouldn't let it go until she got an answer. "I just don't want to make a big deal out of getting new bras and panties. I would rather just go into the shop, get what I need and get out, but Garcia…well, no offense to her, but she makes every little thing seem like it's a trip to Disneyland." Emily snorted and nodded in agreement with that statement as the teen continued. "Plus, I'd rather not have Emma with me when I do my 'personal' shopping."

"I get it," Emily told her, "But you need new stuff, so why don't you and I go shopping after I get off of work tomorrow? We can leave Emma with Dave and get all of your personal shopping done in one night."

That sounded great to Hannah, but she was a little worried at the thought of leaving Emma alone with Dave. "Are you sure that's a good idea? The guy doesn't seem like he has much experience with small children."

"Don't worry, we'll leave detailed instructions for him and if they prove to be too challenging, he can always call Hotch, who is a fellow father."

The teen wanted to correct Emily on calling Dave their father, but the woman was cool and she didn't want to piss her off. "Okay, I suppose we can do that."

"Hurry up in there, you two!" Garcia's excited voice carried into the dressing area. "We found some awesome jewelry for you to try on, Hannah!"

The teen just rolled her eyes as Emily laughed and left the dressing cubicle.

xxxxxxxxxx

While his daughters were out shopping with the female members of his team, Dave sat behind his desk at the BAU and signed his name to yet another piece of paper. Since he was pursuing legal guardianship, and eventually adoption of the girls, he was entitled to paternity leave and he planned on using some of it immediately so he could spend time with the girls before they started school and also so he could get things like nannies and social workers figured out. The rest he would take once the girls were officially his. He thought about all of the things that had to be done in the next few weeks and he became a little overwhelmed. Thankfully, just as he was about to panic, there was a knock on his door and Hotch walked in.

"How's it going?" He asked as he sat down in a chair across from Dave's desk.

"I'm ready to stick something sharp in my eye after reading and signing all of these forms," he replied and didn't miss his friend's grin; it was well known at the BAU that paperwork was NOT the elder profiler's friend.

"I hear you, but I was actually wondering how it's going with the girls. How did your first night go?"

"Well let's see; their rooms are decorated to my taste, I almost poisoned them by giving them dairy products at dinner, Hannah hates me more than anything on the planet, neither of them know how to sleep past six in the morning and I spent most of the night pacing and checking on them while they slept. I also learned that their father was a bit of an asshole towards them and now they expect the same thing from me. All in all, I'd say the night was a little rough," Dave told him tiredly.

"Don't worry, it'll get better," Hotch reassured him. "Hannah's a teenager so she hates everything, you'll redo their rooms, you'll learn how to work around their food allergies, you'll change their opinion of you and the worrying…well, that never goes away, but you learn how to work around it."

"It's crazy Aaron, I've only really known the girls for a couple of days and I already can't imagine my life without them. Now I just have to find schools for them, doctors and dentists for them and someone to look after them when I'm out of town, not to mention that I should probably get to know them better."

"It will happen, Dave," Hotch reassured him. "At least you have them for a few weeks before school starts back up."

"Yeah, that really is a blessing, but-" The rest of his sentence was cut off by the ringing of his cell phone. He grabbed it off of his belt, looked at the caller ID, visibly paled and set the device down on his desk.

"Who is it?" Hotch asked, concerned by his friend's reaction.

"My mother," Dave replied in a near whisper. "How in the hell did she find out about the girls?"

"Maybe it's about something else?" Hotch suggested as the phone stopped ringing. After a few seconds of silence, it began ringing again and the same phone number flashed across the screen.

"Are you kidding?" He asked his friend incredulously. "You've met my mother; I swear she has ESP. She is going to be _pissed _when she finds out I've had the girls for a day and haven't brought them by to meet her yet." He reluctantly picked up the phone and held it for another second as it rang.

"You'd better pick up," Hotch said with a grin as he got up from the chair and headed for the office door. "If she really _does _have ESP, she'll know that you're cowering in your office ignoring her phone call. Good luck." With that Hotch left the office, but he caught the rude gesture from his friend's middle finger as he closed the door behind him.

Dave, seeing the door close, took a deep breath and flipped the cell phone open. "Hello?" He said, hoping against hope that his mother wouldn't actually puncture his eardrum as she voiced her displeasure.


	8. Chapter 8

Changes-Chapter 8

**~There's still time to sign up for the 2012 Valentine's Day Challenge at the Chit Chat on Author's Corner form! Be sure to sign up by Saturday, February 4.**

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><p>"Hello?" He said, hoping against hope that his mother wouldn't actually puncture his eardrum as she voiced her displeasure. Aw, who was he kidding? She was going to rip him a new one over the phone and then later, she'd come by and do it in person.<p>

"Hello Davie," a deep voice said and Dave heaved a huge sigh of relief; it was his father on the other end of the line, not his irate mother. Maybe that meant she didn't know? After all, _he'd _only learned about the girls five days ago and he hadn't told anyone in his family, so how could she know? Nope, his dad was probably just calling to shoot the breeze.

"Hey dad, what's up?" While he spoke, he reviewed the numerous pieces of paperwork he'd filled out. The last thing he wanted was to have to return to the BAU because he forgot to dot an i or cross a t.

"You are," Nicolo Rossi said in a stern voice. "As in, you're up shit creek without a paddle," he clarified.

"Dad, what are you-" The elder Rossi didn't let his son finish the question.

"You've been the guardian of two girls for almost three days and you didn't expect your mother to be upset?" His father asked incredulously. "No offense son, but are you an idiot?"

"_No_," Dave said a bit testily, "I've just had a lot going on and I haven't had time to fill everyone in on my life changes. How did mom even find out?"

"How does your mother find out half of the stuff she does?" Nicolo asked rhetorically. "I think she mentioned that a Penelope Garcia said something to her."

"Perfect," Dave muttered. When the team was out of the office, the unit secretary sometimes sent the calls to Garcia who would try to work her magic before sending them to the appropriate voice mails. Apparently his mother and the quirky tech had had quite a conversation.

"So how's fatherhood treating you, son?" Dave's own dad asked.

"I'm terrified, dad," he confessed softly. "I'm responsible for two living, breathing human beings. What if I teach them the wrong things? What if I don't teach them enough? What if what I do now turns them into psychopaths later on? What if-"

"Stop son," his dad interrupted forcefully. "Every parent is terrified when they have a child and every parent wonders the same things you are wondering right now. You're a good man, Davie and your girls will turn out to be fine people. Just take it slowly with them. What are they like?"

"Emma's six and cute as a button and Hannah's almost fifteen and she's already gorgeous…I just know I'm gonna have to chase the boys off with a stick once school starts. They're both polite and smart and they know how to take care of themselves. Hannah's not exactly my biggest fan, but Emma warmed up to me fairly quickly and I'm hoping Hannah will eventually come around."

"I'm sure she-" The rest of the elder Rossi's sentence was cut off by a loud screech in the background.

"Are you talking to our son?" Sophia Rossi asked her husband loudly. "Did you tell him he is a dead man for keeping the news of his new daughters from me? Let me talk to him!"

Dave could hear a slight scuffle on the other end of the line and he knew his mother was trying to physically wrestle the phone away from his father. "Okay Sophia, _okay_!" Nicolo said loudly. "Let me just say goodbye to our son! Ooof! Good luck Davie," he said loudly as his wife grabbed the phone away from him.

There was a slight pause and then Dave pulled the phone away from his ear as his mother screeched, "David Nicolo Rossi!"

"Hi mom," he said in a normal tone of voice. "How are you?"

"Don't you 'hi mom' me, young man!" She ordered sternly. "What made you think you could hide my newest grandchildren from me?"

"I wasn't hiding anyone mom, everything happened so quickly that I haven't had a chance to bring them over to the house." He suddenly felt like he was six years old again and defending his actions to his mother. It didn't help that his parents still lived in the house that he and his siblings had grown up in.

"I finally have granddaughters Davie, granddaughters! After four sons and seven grandsons, I finally have some little girls I can dote on and you tried keeping them away from me!"

"Jesus mom, I wasn't hiding anyone from you!" He protested loudly. "I _told _you I just got the girls and I haven't had time to introduce them to everyone yet."

"Don't you raise your voice at me!" Sophia snapped back at him. "I still have the wooden spoon in the drawer, and I'm not 'everyone,' I'm your mother and you should tell me when you've adopted two girls, I shouldn't have to hear about it from Penelope."

Just hearing her threaten him with that goddamned wooden spoon was enough to make Dave change his tone to something more apologetic. "Sorry mom, I haven't slept much in the past few days and I'm on edge. What I meant to say was I don't want to overwhelm them their first few days here."

"Well, that's better," she sniffed haughtily. "And I understand that, but I want to meet my granddaughters. How about a family dinner on Sunday?"

"That won't work; the team's coming over to help me repaint their bedrooms on Saturday and then Emily and I are going to take them to the cabin for a few days while the house airs out." He hadn't exactly asked the team for their help yet, but he figured if he sweetened the deal with homemade pizza and beer, they would be on board with it.

"Davie," his mother started but he wouldn't let her finish.

"No mom, those girls and their comfort levels are my first priority. I know you want to meet them, but I am _not_ going to expose them to our crazy family until they've gotten a little more comfortable with me."

Sophia was torn; on the one hand, she _really_ wanted to meet her new grandchildren but on the other hand, it was nice to hear her son sounding so parental about them. She tried to compromise, "What if your father and I come by while you're painting on Saturday? We could bring pizza and dessert and maybe we could help out with some of the work."

Dave thought about it for a moment and then finally nodded his agreement, forgetting his mother couldn't see him. "Okay, that will work," he said, "But just you and dad, they'll meet the rest of the zoo later."

"All right Davie, just me and your father," Sophia agreed. They chit chatted for a little while longer before Dave saw Emily enter the bullpen and he cut the conversation with his mother short. He left his office, leaned against the railing and watched as the BAU women and his new daughters dragged many bags into the bullpen. They seemed happy but tired and he was about to go down and greet them when he took a closer look at Hannah and Emma.

"Penelope!" He bellowed as he stormed down the short, metal staircase. "Why do my daughters have purple streaks in their hair?"

xxxxxxxxxx

Two hours later, after both she and Garcia assured him that the color would wash out of the girls' hair that night, Dave and Emily were in the kitchen fixing dinner while Hannah and Emma put their purchases away in their rooms. It was somewhat strange to be cooking with his significant other while his new children roamed around on the second floor. It was oddly domestic and it felt nice.

"Oh, we stopped at Home Depot and picked up a bunch of paint cards. Good luck getting them to decide on colors for their bedrooms; Emma likes about 18 different shades of pink, while Hannah is trying to play it cool about her room. The entire time we were in the store she kept saying that she didn't want to redo her room, that it was fine the way it is, but she kept looking longingly at the yellow paint cards so I shoved a bunch of them into the bag."

Dave sighed, "I'm not sure what her problem is with me and with living here," he said as he formed patties out of the ground beef in front of him.

"Seriously?" Emily asked, wondering how such a brilliant profiler could be so stupid when it came to teenage girls. "She's almost fifteen, Dave; that alone explains about 98% of her moodiness. She also just lost her father, she was the primary caretaker of her sister and now she's not, she was uprooted from her home and everything she knew and now she's living with a guy she barely knows and he's talking about adoption. Wouldn't you be a discombobulated if all of that was happening to you?"

"I suppose," he said grudgingly. "What do I do about it?"

"Give her time," Emily replied as she put a tray of tater tots into the oven. "Give her time to adjust to all that's happened in her life, give her time to wrap her head around things."

"I can do that," he said as he added his secret spice blend to the burgers. "Especially since school doesn't start for almost a month. That reminds me, can you help me look for schools for them? I'm gonna put Garcia on it, but I'd like another set of eyes to help me decide."

"Of course Dave," Emily responded softly, touched that he wanted her to be involved with such a big decision. They hadn't really had a chance to discuss what her role would be with the girls, since everything had happened so fast, but she was happy that he seemed to want her to play a large part in their lives.

"Oh, and I'm going to try to Shanghai the team into helping me paint the girls' rooms this weekend and I'm hoping that Hotch and Morgan will help me swap the old furniture with some new stuff. After that, I'm taking Hannah and Emma to the cabin for a few days to escape the paint fumes and it goes without saying that I hope you'll join us," as he spoke, he leaned closer to her and finished with a kiss. He would've wrapped his arms around her, but his hands were still filled with raw, ground beef.

"Definitely," she said as she returned the kiss. They stayed like that for a few moments before Emily finally broke away from him. "You're on your own with Emma tomorrow night."

"Why?" Dave was slightly panicked; he'd never really taken care of a small child by himself, other than his nephews on occasion.

"Hannah and I are going to finish up her shopping after work."

Dave groaned, "What more could she possibly need? I helped carry in all of the bags and I'd be surprised if there was anything left at the mall."

Emily smiled at his dramatics, "There are certain things that a girl doesn't want to try on with an audience."

Dave knew what she was talking about and he gave a mock sigh, "Fine, take my credit card again. Hopefully it won't be a melted puddle of plastic when you're done."

"I _told_ you it was too much," Hannah's voice piped up from the doorway. "I told you I didn't need all of those clothes; we should just take them back." Before either of them could say anything, she turned around and left the doorway. A few seconds later they heard her feet on the staircase as she went back up to the second floor.

"Great," Emily said as she blew out her breath sharply. "That was her biggest fear throughout the shopping trip today, that you would be angry at how much money we spent. It was like pulling teeth to get her to try on clothes."

"How the hell was I supposed to know that? I was just joking," he defended himself.

"You'd better go up and talk to her," Emily told him. "I'll go heat up the grill."

"Okay," he said as he washed his hands at the sink. Once he was done, he started up the steps and stopped in front of Hannah's room and knocked. He heard a few giggles and was surprised when Emma called out, "come in!" He opened the door and found Emma sitting on the floor while Hannah sat in her desk chair above her. The older girl was braiding Emma's hair while Emma chattered amongst the two Barbie dolls she was holding.

"Dave!" She said happily. "Look what I got!" She held up both Barbies in a triumphant manner.

"That's great Emma," he said and then looked up at Hannah. "I was just joking before, Hanna; I'm not upset at all of the things you got today, honestly and I don't want you to return anything, okay? I want you and Emma to have everything you need here."

"Why?" She asked as she finished one side of her sister's head and moved on to the other. "Why do you care? Why are we so important to you?"

He watched as Emma went very still and he knew he had to answer the question correctly. "I've always wanted kids," he said softly. "I've been married a few times but kids were never part of the equation."

"So why don't you have your own with Emily?" Hannah asked.

"Maybe we will someday," he told her, "But right now both of you need someone to help you out and your dad wanted me to be that person and I can do it for you. Besides, I care about both of you and I want you to be happy."

Both girls mulled Dave's words over in their minds. "We don't _need_ anyone's help, but thank you for everything you've done for us," Hannah said begrudgingly. He smiled thinking he'd made a little headway with the teen, but her next words shot that idea down. "We're _not_ your daughters."

"What do you mean?" He asked as Emma returned to playing with her dolls.

"When we were at the BAU today, you asked Garcia why there purple streaks in your daughters' hair but we're not your daughters, we already have a father."

Dave wanted to argue the point, he wanted to tell her that her father was dead and she did, in fact, need an adult in her life, but he didn't want to further alienate her so he changed the subject. "Dinner will be ready in a few minutes so please come downstairs when you're done doing Emma's hair."

"We will," she responded as he closed the door. Once he was out in the hallway, he released a larger sigh and wondered if the older girl would ever warm up to him.


	9. Chapter 9

**Peace, Love and War-Chapter 9**

**~This chapter and the next one are going to be pretty fluffy. After that, it gets a bit heavier.**

**~Thanks to everyone for the great reviews! **

**~Check out the featured 'Author of the Week' thread over at the Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum. This week's author is the talented Kricket Williams. **

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><p>"Aaaaiiiieeeeeee!" Dave felt his blood run cold as he heard the scream emanate from the six year-old's bedroom. Dropping the bath toys he'd been putting away and automatically reaching for his sidearm, he ran through the bathroom and into Emma's room, where he found her staring at the wall in wide-eyed fear.<p>

"Emma, what's wrong?" He asked as he holstered his gun and knelt down next to her. While he waited for her response, he began checking her over for injuries.

"Spider, Dave!" She exclaimed pointing at a small spot on the wall. "There's a really big spider on the wall!" She looked both cute and terrified in her bright pink Hello Kitty summer pajamas and he felt his heart swell with love as he stood up and started for the wall. He felt her clutching the back of his leg as she used his body as a barrier between her and the small bug.

"NO! It might get you," she said in a loud whisper, as though the arachnid would hear her and launch itself at her.

"It's a small spider, Em," he said as he reached for a tissue from her bedside table. He felt the little girl grip him around the waist from behind as he approached the spider.

"Are you gonna kill it?" She asked as she peeked out from behind his legs to look at the offending creature.

"No, I'm going to move it onto the Kleenex and then we'll let it go out your window."

"No, it might come back in! You have to kill it!" She told him with a bit of hysteria in her voice.

"Emma, it won't-" He started but the little girl, who was now next to him, wouldn't let him finish.

"KILL IT!" She screeched and he was shocked that such a small and sweet girl could make such an eardrum piercing noise. Without thinking, Dave mashed the spider onto the wall, effectively ending it's life.

"Is that better, sweetheart?" He asked as he lifted her trembling body into his arms.

"Uh-huh, thanks Dave," she said gratefully as she rested her head in the crook of his neck. "Can you help me dry my hair?"

"Sure," he said confidently, even though he really had no idea what he was talking about. Once Hannah had left to meet Emily earlier that evening, it had dawned on him that he had never taken care of a little girl before…hell, he'd only taken care of his nephews on a few occasions, usually when one of his brothers and wife were _really _hard up for a babysitter. While he'd felt confident about his ability to take care of the two girls in general, he'd always imagined Emily next to him, not just himself and a six-year old.

Dinner had gone well; he'd carefully made a dairy free supper for the two of them and he'd listened as Emma had talked about her new dolls, her new clothes and how her pink room was going to be 'the bestest thing in the world.' After dinner, it had been bath time and that had been awkward at first, but thankfully the women had picked up some girly bubble bath and water toys during their shopping excursion. As Emma had played with her bath dolls, he'd made a mental note to buy the three of them nicer Christmas presents that year.

He followed the little girl into the bathroom she shared with her older sister and watched as she looked in the cabinets underneath the sinks. "Oh no!" She exclaimed. "We forgot our hairdryer at home!"

He wanted to correct her, to remind her that she _was _home, but he didn't want to rock the boat with her, so he kept quiet. Instead he grabbed a fresh towel out of the cabinet and sat down on the closed toilet. He pulled Emma towards him, stood her in front of him and began quickly rubbing her head with the towel. The little girl squealed with laughter while he dried her hair and, a few minutes later, she emerged from under the towel with only slightly damp hair. "Now we have to brush it," she said, handing him her shockingly pink hairbrush. Brushing her long hair took longer than the drying of it, since the vigorous rubbing of her hair had created snarls and tangles, but after a few minutes, and more than a few "ouches" from Emma, her hair was brushed.

"We should probably start getting ready for bed, sweetheart," he said, but the little girl had other ideas.

"Can I stay up until Hannie and Emily get home? Please?" She folded her hands up under her chin, as if praying, and looked up at him with puppy dog eyes.

He knew he should say no; he knew she needed her sleep and god only knew how late Emily and Hannah would be, but he couldn't resist the look on his little girl's face. "Okay Em, you can stay up until they get back." Once again he wondered, with some unease, how her teenage years would go since she could already play him like a violin.

"Oh thank you Dave!" She said as she ran into her bedroom. A minute later, she came out with the princess makeup kit the women had gotten her during the previous day's shopping trip. "We can play dress up while we wait for them!"

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Two hours later, Emily and Hannah walked into the house and found Emma playing quietly with her Barbie dolls in the corner of the living room. She was wearing a bright pink feather boa around her shoulders, and a sparkly princess tiara in her hair. Those accoutrements, along with her pink nightgown and the bright makeup she had slathered onto her face, made for an interesting look. "Hi Emma, where's Dave?" Emily asked as Hannah set her shopping bags on the floor and stared at her sister in dismay.

"Sssssshhhhhh!" Emma shushed loudly, holding her finger to her lips. She then pointed towards the couch and it was all Emily could do to not burst into laughter right then and there.

Dave was sprawled out on the sofa, fast asleep and oblivious to the world. His hair held four purple barrettes and each had sparkly ribbons attached to them…ribbons which now cascaded down his head. His face looked as though someone had fired a makeup gun at him at close range; there was brilliant blue eye shadow on each of his eyelids and it extended up to his brows, his cheeks were bright red with rouge and Emily was fairly certain the shade of lipstick he was wearing was so vivid it could be seen from space.

"Emma, did Dave put this makeup on by himself, or did you help him?" Emily asked softly, in a voice that was choked with repressed laughter.

Emma abandoned her dolls and joined the two women as they stared down at the legendary profiler. "I did while he was sleeping. Isn't he beautiful?"

A snort of laughter escaped Emily's nose and she nodded in agreement. "He's gorgeous," she agreed.

"Stunning," Hannah added through her own giggles.

"How about we take a picture of Dave so you can always remember this?" Emily asked the younger girl as she pulled out her camera phone. Emma nodded eagerly, so Emily took numerous pictures from different angles. She knew she now had the perfect antidote for the next time his ego got a little too big at the office. "Dave, wake up." She shook his shoulder slightly as she slipped her phone into her pocket with her other hand.

Dave, who had been watching a ballgame before he fell asleep, awoke slowly and lazily. "Hey, how was shopping?" He asked as she stretched his limbs.

"It was fun, but it looks like you had more fun."

"What are you...shoot, I fell asleep!" He said as he quickly sat up. "Is Emma okay?" He breathed a sigh of relief when the little girl stepped into his line of sight. "Oh! You look very…pretty, honey," he told her when he saw both the outfit and all of the makeup she was wearing.

"So do you, Dave," she told him with a proud look on her face.

"What do you…." He trailed off as he reached up and felt the ribbons in his hair. "Emma, we talked about this."

"I know," she said sheepishly, "But I just wanted you to look pretty…I wanted you to be a princess with me."

"By putting ribbons in my hair?"

"Oh, that's not all Dave; she really made you look beautiful," Emily said with a laugh as she passed him a small, handheld mirror from her purse. Dave saw his reflection and groaned; he knew he would never live this down both with his lover and with his oldest daughter.

"How about a picture of the two princesses?" Hannah suggested, as if reading his mind. Emma nodded eagerly and jumped into Dave's lap while he just nodded in resignation.

He posed for a few pictures with Emma before he reached up and tugged Hannah down onto the couch next to them. "You're not getting out of these," he teased with a smile and, to his surprise, she gave a small smile back to him. After a few more pictures, he called out to Emily, "Come join us."

With a smile of her own, Emily sat down next to Dave and the four of them contorted so they could all be in the same picture. Even though he knew it would ruin his 'tough as nails' image at work, he knew the pictures would hold a prominent place on his wall at the office.


	10. Chapter 10

**Peace, Love and War-Chapter 10**

**~Be sure to check out the new 'Back To Basics' challenge for March at the Chit Chat on Authors Corner forum.**

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><p>Three days later, the house was abuzz with people. The team, plus Kevin, Will, Henry and Jack, were there helping to paint the girl's rooms and there were furniture delivery people coming and going throughout most of the morning. Each of the girls got new beds, desks, dressers, night tables and bookshelves for their rooms and each piece of furniture needed to be assembled. Surprisingly, Reid was able to assemble the most of it quickly and he used Will to help him lift the heavier pieces.<p>

Part of the crew was assigned to Hannah's room, where they painted the walls a light yellow while the baseboards and crown molding remained a crisp white. In the bathroom, Kevin, Henry, Jack and Hannah painted the walls a light purple while the remainder of the team painted Emma's walls a bright, sparkly pink.

"I have a friend who does murals," Garcia said to Dave as she painted next to him. "If you want, he could probably do a Disney Princess mural on one of the walls for her."

Dave saw Emma's eyes light up as she overheard the technical analyst so he nodded and said, "Sure, if that's what Emma wants."

The little girl squealed. "I do! Oh, I want a princess wall SO bad!"

"I'll talk to him about it tomorrow," Garcia promised as Emma hopped around in excitement.

"What about you, Hannah?" Dave asked as the older girl entered the room. "Do you want some art on your walls too?"

"No thanks," she said politely. "I'm going downstairs for some water; does anyone else want any?" Everyone nodded, so Hannah decided to bring up a large pitcher of ice water and some glasses. As she made her way down the stairs, the doorbell rang, so she detoured to the front door. When she opened it, she found two older people on the other side and they were both carrying la lot of food.

"Can I help you?" She asked, a bit confused.

"You must be Hannah," the woman said brightly and the teen's confusion deepened. How did this woman know her name?

"I am, and you are?"

"I'm your…I mean, that is, we're Dave's parents." Sophia had almost slipped and referred to herself as the girl's grandmother, but she knew it would be way too soon for her. As it was, she had to stop herself from squealing in excitement over FINALLY having granddaughters.

"I'm Nicolo Rossi," Dave's dad said as he moved closer to his wife, "but you can call me Nick, and this is my wife Sophia."

"It's nice to meet you," Hannah said as she stepped aside so they could enter the house. "Can I help you carry something?" Manners had been drilled into both her and Emma at a young age, both by their mother and by their father, so she knew how to act around Dave's parents.

"We've got it," Nicolo said as they walked towards the kitchen. Dave, who had heard the doorbell, entered the room as well.

"Mom, dad, I forgot you were coming," he said as he gave his dad a hug.

"I'm so glad we're so important in your life, David," Sophia said as she gave her son a peck on the cheek. "We brought lunch."

"Ooooh, what'd you bring?" Dave asked eagerly as he unloaded the boxes.

"Garlic bread, salad and pizza," she told him and then saw Hannah's face fall out of the corner of her eye. "What's the matter Hannah?"

"It's nothing, it's just...Emma and I won't be able to eat the pizza, but I can make us something else."

"No, you can eat this pizza," Sophia told her. "Davie told me about yours and Emma's milk allergy, so I made it with cheese that's made from rice milk."

"I was doubtful at first, but I had a piece last night and it's really good," Nicolo said.

"Great, I'll help you unpack," Dave said, as if it was no big deal that his mother had altered her recipe so the girls could eat it, but Hannah stood in stunned silence. No one had _ever _done that for them before. Hell, when he was stateside, their father would bring pizza home at least once a week and each time she had to remind him that they were allergic to it. It was as if he thought they were faking it or something. Normally, when they went to people's houses or their dad cooked, Hannah made something separate for her and Emma…in fact, no one had gone out of their way to fix something the two of them could eat since her mom died. She was confused as to why these people who barely knew them, and she included Dave and Emily in that group, would go to such trouble for them.

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An hour later, all of the rooms were painted and everyone was enjoying lunch on Dave's deck, which overlooked the backyard. Jack and Henry, who had wolfed down their food, were playing on the swing set Dave had installed the day before, while everyone else was still at the table chatting and laughing.

"Oh, _please _tell me you have pictures of that!" Garcia begged when she heard about Dave's makeover.

"I do, but they are safe in my phone until I really need them," Emily told her. Garcia rolled her eyes at the woman, grabbed her own iPhone and in a minute, she was nearly doubled over with laughter.

"Check this out, my chocolate God," she wheezed as she passed her phone to Derek. Emily, who was on the other side of him, was surprised to see her pictures on the tech analyst's phone.

"Garcia! Did you hack my phone?" She asked, affronted.

Penelope nodded, "Sorry chicka, but these are too good to keep to yourself. As a team…no, as a _family_ I think we all deserve to see them." She grabbed her phone back from Morgan and passed it to JJ, who sprayed soda out of her nose when she saw the pictures. Dave just dropped his face into his hands and shook his head.

"Garcia," Hotch said warningly, "We've talked about this."

"But sir, I didn't do it on company time."

"Still, that couldn't have been legal," Hotch said.

Dave finally took his face out of his hands and glanced at his new daughters, who were more subdued than usual. "Are you two okay? You're pretty quiet over there."

Hannah nodded. "We're just enjoying this yummy pizza," she told him and then looked at his mother. "This is very good Sophia, thank you."

"You're welcome Hannah, it was fun trying a new recipe," she responded.

"How about you, Emma? Are you okay?" Nicolo asked.

The young girl nodded as she chewed a bite of food. "I'm fine, I'm not talking because daddy always made us be quiet when his team was over."

"Whenever dad invited his team over, they were usually planning something," Hannah clarified. "He didn't want us interfering."

"Well you don't have to be quiet with my team," he told her. "I invited the team over to have fun, not to do work…well, I guess we _did _work today, but it was fun work."

"Are you excited about your new bedroom, Emma?" Hotch asked as he kept an eye on the boys out of the corner of his eye.

She nodded excitedly. "I am! I can't wait to sleep in my new bed and I love my new desk, but I wish…"

"What do you wish, sweetheart?" Dave asked. "Did we forget something for your room?"

"I just wish _I_ could have a trampoline in my room like you have in yours."

"I don't have a trampoline in my room," he said, confused.

"Yes you do," the little girl insisted. "I heard you bouncing on it last night; you and Emily."

Hannah turned bright red when she realized what her sister was talking about, but it took everyone else at the table another moment to figure it out.

"Honey, we were asleep last night, just like you and Hannah," Emily said gently.

"Nuh uh!" Emma argued, "I _heard _you! I heard you bouncing and the trampoline springs squeaking and I heard you cry 'oh Dave, oh Dave! More, more!' It sounded like you were having fun and you didn't even invite us." She ended her tattling with a pout on her face and it was all everyone could do to not burst into laughter.

Emily, who was an even deeper red than Hannah by that point, asked weakly, "You heard us?"

"Yup," she said knowledgably. "And then I heard you say, 'don't you dare leave me hanging, David Rossi!' Do you have a trapeze in there too?"

As Derek shook in silent laughter next to her, Emily shot a glance at Dave and realized he was going to be of no help in the situation as he looked absolutely panicked; his face was a deep red and he was barely moving except for a slight shaking of his head. She couldn't really blame him…hell, his new daughter pretty much told him she'd heard them having sex in front of all of their friends _and _his parents. She didn't blame him for his speechlessness since she too wanted to curl up into a hole and die of embarrassment but somebody had to try and remedy the situation.

"Emma, we don't have a trampoline in our room," she said, praying the little girl would just let it go at that. Apparently God found the situation just as amusing as their coworkers did since he didn't listen to her frantic prayer.

"Then what were you doing in there?" That was too much for Hotch, who couldn't hold back his laughter. Thankfully, he was able to hide it behind his bottle of beer so Emma didn't hear it, but Dave did and he shot his best friend a lethal glare.

"What were we doing?" Emily repeated as she scrambled for an answer. Thankfully for her and Dave, Hannah, who was nearly as embarrassed as they were, took pity on them and saved the day.

"Em, do you remember when we saw those people kissing in the park?" She asked. "Remember how I told you that grown-ups like to do that and they sometimes share a special hug?"

"Uh huh, so Dave and Emily were smooching and hugging?"

"Yup," Hannah replied and then changed the subject. "Since you're finished eating, why don't you go play on the swing set with Jack and Henry?"

"'Kay Hannie," she said as she jumped up from the table and ran to the backyard. Once she was out of earshot, everyone except Dave, Emily and Hannah began laughing uncontrollably.

"Omigod, I almost _died _when she asked if the two of you were hugging and smooching!" Garcia shrieked.

"I don't think I've ever seen Dave turn so red in all years I've known him," Hotch said, his dimples standing out on his face.

"Oh son, I always prayed your children would give you as many gray hairs as you gave your mother and me and it looks as though my prayers have been answered!" His dad chuckled.

"Forget Dave, I never thought I would see Emily speechless!" JJ exclaimed with a smile.

Sophia finally took pity on her son and the woman she hoped would become her daughter in law. "Come on, I need some help cleaning up this mess." With that, everyone got up and helped clear the table, leaving Dave, Emily and Hannah alone on the deck.

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence before Emily finally spoke up. "So you heard us last night?"

"Um yeah," the teen squirmed. "Emma woke up with the storm and she came into my room because she was scared. If it makes you feel better, we wouldn't have heard you if we hadn't already been up."

Unsurprisingly, that didn't make either of them feel better. "She came into your room?" Dave asked with a frown.

Hannah nodded, "She's really scared of thunder and lightning and she usually jumps into my bed when it storms."

"Well thanks for explaining things to her; you really got us off the hook," Dave said.

The teen nodded, "So now that it's over with, we never have to talk about this again, right?" Emily and Dave nodded their emphatic agreement as got up from the table and joined the younger kids in the yard. Once they were alone, the happy couple remained seated at the table, still mortified by the turn the lunchtime conversation had taken.

"So how are you doing?" Emily asked sarcastically as she sat back in her chair.

"Well let's see, my new daughters heard us having sex last night, my youngest daughter told everyone we know about it, including my parents, and my oldest daughter had to smooth it over with her. I'm doing great. You?"

Emily snorted, "When you put it that way, it seems pretty bad, but it could've been worse."

"How?"

"Let's just say my parents forgot to lock their bedroom door when I was younger. Twenty-five years later and that still comes up in therapy."

"That's bad," he said as he picked up her hand and laced his fingers through hers. "But I still don't know how we're ever going to be able to show our faces at work again."

"Forget work," Emily told him. "Tomorrow we're going to Home Depot and getting some sound proofing material for our bedroom."


	11. Chapter 11

Peace, Love and War-Chapter 10**  
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**~Be sure to sign up for the May future fic challenge at the Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum and, while you're there be sure to ask klcm a question, as she is the featured author of the week.**

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><p>"All packed?" Dave asked his daughters as they came down the stairs holding their small duffel bags. The team and his parents had finally left after a day of painting and furniture construction and, because of the summer heat and humidity, he couldn't open the windows to let the paint fumes air out so he was taking Emma, Hannah and Emily to his cabin for a few days.<p>

Both girls nodded. "You have your swimsuits, right? Because there's a pool at the cabin." The two girls brightened considerably at that.

"Really? A pool?" Hannah asked as excitement filled her voice.

Emily nodded, "I know what you're thinking, a cabin should be four drafty walls and maybe, if you're lucky, an indoor bathroom, right?" Hannah nodded. "Not Dave, he likes being comfortable when he's communing with nature. Trust me; the cabin is almost as nice as this place."

"Awesome, I'll go get my bikini," Hannah said and then smiled when she saw the horrified expression on her guardian's face. "Just kidding, Dave; Emily helped me choose a sensible one piece."

"Not funny," he said with a mock growl.

"Come on Hannie," Emma said impatiently, "Let's go get our suits so we can go swimmin' when we get there!" With that, both girls ran back up the steps to get the extra articles of clothing.

"I'm glad Hannah is starting to feel comfortable enough to joke around with me," Dave said with a smile.

"I am too, although I have a feeling it's going to be more of a 'two steps forward, one step back' type of relationship with her for awhile; at least until she really comes to terms with the fact that her father isn't on some secret mission, that he's really dead."

"You think?"

Emily nodded, "I do. The situation would be difficult enough for any kid, but factor in her teenage moodiness and it becomes a bit more volatile."

"I suppose you're right," Dave said with a sigh, not knowing just how prophetic her words would be.

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An hour and a half later, after many 'are we there yet?' questions from Emma, Dave finally parked the SUV in front of his cabin in the Virginia woods. The four of them got out and, while Dave went to the cargo area to let Mudgie out, Emily stretched and the two girls stared in amazement at the cabin.

"This is your place?" Hannah asked in awe.

Dave nodded as Mudgie nearly toppled him over in his eagerness to leave the car. "Yup, it's my little nature sanctuary."

"Little my ass," Emily mumbled with a snort.

"It's so big," Emma whispered, still not used to living in such luxury.

"Come on girls, grab your bags and let's head inside." The two kids grabbed their duffel bags, as did Emily, and they made their way into the cabin. After the requisite tour of the main floor, Dave led them upstairs and showed them where their shared bedroom was. After that, they all changed into their bathing suits and met at the large, in-ground pool in the backyard.

"Do you both know how to swim?" He asked the girls.

"I do but Emma is just learning," Hannah told him as she put the little girl's water wings on her.

"That's fine, I'll stay with Emma while you and Emily splash around in the deep end," Dave said as walked down the steps and into the shallow end of the pool.

"It's okay Dave, I can stay with her," the teen said as her protectiveness towards her little sister went into overdrive.

"It's fine Hannah, I've got her," Dave said firmly as he tried to establish himself as the parent in the relationship with both of the girls. "Come on in, sweetheart," he said to Emma. The little girl eagerly jumped down the stairs and into the pool, where she was caught by her guardian. Hannah glared at him for a moment before she finally decided it wasn't worth arguing over and joined Emily in the deep end of the pool.

Once the summer sun began fading, they got out of the pool and the women dried off on the deck while Dave grilled up burgers and hotdogs. After that, once it was completely dark out, they went back into the cabin…and that's when Dave faced his first major crisis as a new parent: the dreaded temper tantrum.

After dinner, Emma set up her toys in front of the sofa in the great room and was happily playing with them while Hannah read a book and Dave and Emily watched their favorite TV show. When it was over, Emily got up to fix some snacks for everyone and Hannah joined her in the kitchen. A minute later, Emma got up from her spot on the floor and stood in front of him.

"Dave, can we go home now?" She asked sweetly.

"Sorry, honey," he said as he watched the baseball game behind her. "The house smells like paint, so we're going to have to stay here for a few days until it dries."

"But I wanna sleep in my new princess rooooooom," she whined as her lower lip jutted out in a pout. Dave, who had never heard his youngest daughter whine before, tried reasoning with her again.

"Honey, your princess room will still be there in a few days."

"But I wanna see it now!" She said petulantly as she crossed her arms over her chest and stomped her foot.

As cute as she looked at the moment, Dave knew he couldn't give into her whining and demands. "I'm sorry Emma, but you're just going to have to wait a few days," he said firmly. "Now why don't we read a book together?" He asked as he picked a children's book up from the coffee table.

"No!" The formerly angelic little girl shouted. "I don't want to read a book with you! You're mean!"

"Emma, we are not going back to the house tonight and that's final. Now, do you want to read with me or would you rather go back to playing with your toys."

"I don't wanna play with my stupid toys," she yelled. "I. Want. To. Go. HOME!" She stomped her foot with each word and her voice reached a pitch that only bats could hear by the end.

"Okay," Dave said calmly. "I think you need a time out; go to your room." He was surprised to see a look of fear flash across her face but it was soon replaced by a look of stubbornness.

"No! I don't wanna go to my room and you can't make me!" Emily and Hannah walked into the room just then and they caught the tail end of the argument.

"Emma Smith, go to your room right now," Dave repeated sternly, putting a slight emphasis on the word 'now.'

The girl glared at him and gave a little growl before she stomped toward the stairs. Since Emily and Hannah had been waiting for the argument to end before fully entering the room, they were standing near the stairs and, as she went by them, Emma deliberately shoved her sister before she ran up the steps and slammed her bedroom door loudly.

"That's it," Dave said, shaking his head resignedly as he got up from the sofa. He started for the staircase and was surprised when Hannah moved in front of it to block him.

"Where are you going?" She asked in a determined tone of voice.

"Upstairs to see your sister," he replied. "She has to learn that she can't behave like that, nor can she shove people just because she doesn't get her own way."

"No," Hannah said forcefully as she remained in place. "Just leave her alone and let me deal with her."

"Listen young lady," Dave said as his annoyance grew with his older daughter. "The last time I checked, I'm in charge here and _I'm_ the one who hands down punishments, not you."

"I don't care," she said stubbornly as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I am _not _going to let you spank her!"

"Spank her?" Dave asked in confusion. "I'm not going to spank her, I'm going to talk to her about her behavior and let her know it was unacceptable and then I'm going to tell her that she can't go on tomorrow's family hike through the woods."

"Oh." Now it was Hannah's turn to be confused. "O…okay then," she said as she stepped aside.

"Hannah, is that how your dad punished you and Emma?" Dave asked, not wanting to hear the answer.

"Well, yeah," she said, as though it should be obvious. "Once mom died, dad settled most things with his belt."

'Jesus Mark, what the hell happened to you?' Dave thought as he struggled to not say anything negative about his friend. "Is that why Emma looked so scared when I sent her to her room?"

Hannah nodded, "Yeah, with dad there wasn't any talking, just punishment." While she loved her father and could deal with his punishments, she'd always thought he was too hard on Emma and she was glad Dave was going to go easy on her.

"Well I'm not like your dad," Dave told her as he started up the steps.

"No kidding," the teen mumbled but, again, there was confusion in her voice instead of complete animosity.

Shaking his head slightly, Dave reached the top of the stairs and entered the girl's shared bedroom. In it, he found Emma standing in a corner of the room, which must have been one of Mark's punishments and it was one he could actually get behind. She was facing it, but Dave could tell by the shaking of her small body that she was crying. With a small sigh, he sat down on the edge of one of the twin beds.

"Come here Emma," he said gently. The little girl turned around and he could see the tears streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry Dave!" She cried as she walked toward him like she was going to her own execution. It was obvious that she was expecting some form of physical punishment, which is why she was surprised when he reached for her and sat her on his lap.

"I know you're sorry honey, but you can't go around shoving people and yelling at them when you don't get your way," he told her as he wrapped his arms around her. "That is unacceptable behavior for a big girl like you."

"Sor-sorry," she hiccupped, still worried about the punishment to come.

"I know you want to sleep in your new bedroom but the paint fumes would make you sick; that's why we're staying here for a few days."

Emma clung to him, still sobbing. "Uh huh," she said in a shuddery voice.

"And the next time I tell you something and you don't agree with it, I expect you to talk to me about it nicely."

"Okay," she agreed through her tears.

"I also want you to apologize to your sister for pushing her," Dave told her as he rubbed her back.

Emma's crying had slowed by that time and Dave felt her nod her head against his chest.

"And you and I are going to stay here tomorrow afternoon while Emily and Hannah go hiking."

With that, the spark came back into the little girl's eyes and she gave a chuff of frustration, but she nodded her head in agreement again.

"Okay then, if you can be nicer to everyone, we can go back downstairs. Can you behave, or do you need more time up here?"

"I'll be good," she told him as she slid off of his lap. She was confused by the turn of events but, even at her young age, she knew she'd gotten off incredibly lightly. "Dave?"

"What is it, sweetie?" He responded as he stood up.

"I'm sorry I was a bad girl tonight."

As he stared down into her mournful puppy dog eyes, Dave felt tears prick his own eyes. "Aww Emma, you weren't a bad girl, you just had a rough night, but you'll always be my princess, okay?" He didn't wait for an answer, he just scooped her into his arms and planted a kiss against her temple, which drew a small smile from her.

With her still in his arms, the two of them went back downstairs and re-joined Emily and Hannah in the great room.

"You okay, Emma?" Hannah asked nervously from her spot on the couch. Sure, Dave said he was only going to talk to her, but he could've easily changed his mind once he got up there.

The 6 year old nodded as Dave set her down. As soon as she was on her feet, she ran over to her older sister and threw herself onto her lap. "I'm sorry I pushed you, Hannie," she said as she gave her a ferocious hug. "I was mad."

"It's okay Em," she said as she rubbed her back. "I still love you. Did everything go okay with Dave?"

She nodded, "I can't go in the woods with everyone tomorrow, but he didn't spank me."

"Well that's good," Hannah said as Emma pulled out of the hug and sat down next to her.

"I know that's how your dad punished both of you, but that's not my style," Dave told them. "I can't promise it won't ever happen, but I prefer grounding and the removal of privileges." Both girls nodded, so he continued. "I think now is a good time to discuss the rules and expectations I have for both of you."

Hannah let out a sigh and rolled her eyes; 'here it comes,' she thought, 'this is when he's gonna get controlling.'

"First," he said. "Either Emily and I need to know where you are at all times. That might seem over protective, but we've seen a lot of terrible things in our jobs and I don't want to have to constantly worry about where either of you are." Seeing Emily nod in agreement next to him, he continued listing the rules. "Second, both of you will have chores around the house and I expect them to get done in a timely manner. It goes without saying that you'll need to clean up after yourselves, but you both will also have some specific chores assigned as well."

"What kind of chores?" Emma asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but we'll figure it out when we get back to the house," he told her. "I also expect the two of you to do your best in school. You don't have to bring home straight A's, but I'll be disappointed if you don't try your absolute best."

Hannah nodded in agreement with that rule; her grades were usually high so she didn't have a problem with that requirement.

"Finally, you will treat both Emily and I with respect and not argue or talk back to us." He knew he didn't have a chance in hell with this rule, especially since one of the kids he was talking to was a teenager, but he thought he'd throw it in there anyway. It didn't help when he saw Emily hiding a smile behind her coffee mug. He could almost hear her saying 'good luck' in his head.

"I also reserve the right to add or adjust the rules and expectations if the need arises in the future. Do either of you have any questions?"

Hannah did. "When you say you need to know where we are at all times, do you mean I have to account for my whereabouts even when I'm out with my friends?"

Dave nodded, "You'll need to tell me where you're going ahead of time and you'll also need to let me know if those plans change. We'll discuss your curfew at a later date."

The teen could feel herself getting pissed off; she'd been pretty independent since her mother died four years previous and she wasn't looking forward to giving up that freedom. She was about to open her mouth to argue with her new guardian but she glanced down and saw her sister dozing against her, so she decided to just nod and agree…she could always argue with him when they discussed her curfew.

Emily also saw how tired both Emma and Hannah looked. "How about we all go to bed?" She suggested. "It's been a long day for everyone and I know I could use some shuteye."

"Okay," Hannah agreed.

"Why don't you two go on ahead; Dave and I will lock up down here and then we'll be up to say goodnight." Hannah nodded and led her sister up the steps. As soon as they were out of earshot, Dave sat back in his chair and let out a relieved sigh.

"Well, you survived your first parenting test," Emily said with a gentle smile.

"God Em, Emma was actually afraid of me when I went into her room tonight!"

"I know, but you put their minds at ease about your parenting style _and _you let them know what you expected from them with little argument in return. All in all, I think you did really well."

"Thanks Em. How did it go with Hannah while I was up talking to Emma?"

"Pretty well," she said. "She was nervous and I think a large part of her expected you to physically discipline Emma, but you didn't and I think you earned her trust tonight."

"Good," he said as he struggled to keep his eyes open. He'd successfully navigated his first parenting crisis and it had exhausted him.

"Come on," Emily said as she got up and held her hand out to him. "If you're going to be exhausted, it's going to be from something I've done to you."

"Are you out of your mind, woman? Did you forget about the little girl who told everyone that she and her sister heard us having sex last night? The little girl who will be sleeping on the other side of our bedroom wall? Do you want that to happen again?"

Emily shook her head, "Nope, so we're going to have to be extra quiet tonight." With that, she darted quickly up the stairs and Dave, despite his misgivings, eagerly followed.


	12. Chapter 12

Peace, Love and War-Chapter 12

**~Be sure to check out this week's Author of the Week, Nebula2, at the Chit Chat on Author's corner forum!**

**~Thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing this story. The reviews keep me motivated!**

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><p>The next morning, Hannah found herself awake at the ungodly hour of six am. While she knew she was no longer required to get out of bed that early, four years of that habit was hard to break. As she lay in bed and stared at the ceiling, she heard her sister's heavy breathing coming from the bed next to hers and decided to leave the room before her tossing and turning woke her. She quietly got out of bed, padded to the door and exited the room. As she stepped into the hallway, she heard Dave's loud snoring from the master bedroom and assumed that he and Emily were still asleep. Grateful for a moment alone, she made her way to the kitchen where she poured herself a glass of orange juice and reflected on how her life had changed in the past few weeks.<p>

Three weeks ago she was living in a shitty little apartment in a horrible part of town with her little sister. They were in Wisconsin and their town had all of fifty thousand people in it and now they were living in the lap of luxury in the big city with a guy she barely knew and he was talking about adopting them! When she really thought about it, it seemed as though they were living 'Little Orphan Annie's' life, minus the orphanage, and that kind of blew her mind. Hell, three weeks ago she'd been repairing her sister's Goodwill dress for the umpteenth time and now she had a closet full of clothing from upscale department stores and boutiques. Three weeks ago she'd been lying to food pantries and skipping meals so that her sister could eat and now they had a kitchen full of dairy free food! Her whole world had gone topsy-turvy and it felt like she hadn't had any time to stop and think about the changes as she had been too busy shopping and meeting people; not to mention helping her sister settle in to their new environment. She knew that soon Dave would want to look at schools for them and if he thought she would just sit back and let him make those decisions for them, he was in for a rude awakening; she had been on her own for too long to just standby and let someone else map out her life.

If she was honest with herself though, it was kind of nice not being the person that was completely in charge of things. Sure, Dave had gotten on her nerves by stepping on her toes and changing things with her sister and she was fairly certain that the whole 'telling him where she was at every moment' would get old quickly, as would a curfew, but it was a relief to not be the person in charge of keeping herself and Emma together and it was nice not being on the run like they had been for the last few months. It was nice to not be the person responsible for their safety and well-being and it was a load off her mind to know there was someone she could turn to during difficult times…she hadn't had that in many years. It was also a relief to know that Dave was around to pick up a lot of the day-to-day stuff that she'd done ever since her mother had died but she knew she was going to miss the independence and freedom she once had. Her feelings about her new life were completely jumbled.

While it was a nice change to have someone to take care of her and Emma, Hannah was also conflicted about Dave himself. What the hell was his angle? Why on earth would he take in two virtual strangers? Yeah, he and her dad had been friends at one time but they hadn't been close at the time of her dad's death, so why was he doing this? From what she had seen the man had been living a high end bachelor life, so why did he suddenly want two kids…two _girls_ cramping his style? Before she could come up with a reason, her solitude was interrupted by a yawning Emily.

"I thought I heard someone down here," she said through her yawn and Hannah understood her only because Emma did the same thing and she'd become adept at translating.

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep," Hannah said as she took a gulp of her OJ. "Why are you up?"

Emily chuckled. "Dave is snoring like a sick bear and it's kind of hard to sleep through that."

"Is that what I heard?" Hannah asked incredulously. "I honestly thought it was an animal out in the woods."

Emily's chuckles turned into outright laughter, "Nope, that was all Dave. He's not usually this bad, but his allergies have him stuffed up." Hannah nodded at that and they sat in silence for a minute.

"What about church?" The teen asked. "It's Sunday; do you guys go anywhere?"

Emily shook her head, "Neither of us is big on it. Do you and Emma go?"

"No, my dad wasn't into it either but I just assumed since Dave is Italian and his parents looked pretty old school…" Hannah trailed off.

"He used to go every Sunday but with our unpredictable schedules, it kind of fell by the wayside. Besides, he figures that having a priest as a best friend will pave his way into the hereafter," Emily said with a grin.

"I'm not an expert, but I don't think it works like that," Hannah responded, also smiling.

"Try telling Dave that," Emily told her and then changed the subject. "I was about to go out into the yard to do some yoga; want to join me?"

"I've never done yoga before," the teen said hesitantly.

"It's okay, I can show you some of the stretches," Emily told her. "I usually do yoga when I need to clear my mind."

"Okay," Hannah agreed as the thought of clearing her mind was an appealing one.

While Emily and Hannah stretched in the backyard, Emma woke up and found she was alone in the shared bedroom. She quickly got out of bed and made her way to Dave and Emily's room, where she knocked softly on the door. She didn't hear an answer, but she heard snoring on the other side, so she quietly opened the door and walked into the room.

"Dave?" She said as she approached her guardian. Dave, who had heard the bedroom door open, rolled onto his side and cracked open one eye.

"What's up, Princess?" He asked with a yawn.

Emma giggled at the nickname, but she didn't correct him. "Hannah's gone, she she's not in our room."

Dave sat up and glanced around his own room. "Hmmm, Emily's missing too." At that moment, he glanced at the large, French doors that led to the second floor balcony and he saw movement in the backyard. He got up, went out the doors and stood on the balcony with Emma.

"What are they doing, Dave?" The little girl asked as she slipped her little hand in his.

"They're doing Yoga, honey. I know it helps Emily relax and I guess Hannah decided to join her." As he watched the two women stretch, he smiled; he was happy that Emily seemed to love the girls just as much as he did. While he hadn't expected to become a father in his 50's, he loved his new role and he already loved his daughters more than he ever thought was possible. "How about we go downstairs and make breakfast?"

Emma nodded excitedly, "Will you make Mickey Mouse pancakes?" Dave had made Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes a few days previous and it had blown the little girl's mind.

"Sure thing, Princess," he told her as they left the room. If Mickey Mouse pancakes made her happy then she was going to get them.

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Four hours later, Hannah was lacing up her hiking boots, which she had brought with her from Wisconsin, when Emily spoke up. "Dave, why don't you go hiking with Hannah instead of me?" Both Hannah and Dave looked at her with matching surprised expressions on their faces. Emma stood off to the side looking longingly at the hiking gear; while she knew Dave had gone easy on her, she was still sad that she wasn't allowed to go on the hike.

"Are you sure?" Dave asked.

"Positive," Emily told him firmly. "I never enjoyed the whole 'nature' part of the academy training and I would much rather stay here and swim with Emma than traipse through the forest."

"Emily, if you don't want to go, we don't have to," Hannah said as she straightened up.

Emily could tell that the girl was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of hiking alone with Dave but she also knew that both of them needed some time alone so they could attempt to work out their differences and this was the perfect opportunity for them. "No, you guys go, it's a beautiful day out and I know Dave, unlike me, loves communing with nature via long hikes."

"Okay," he said as Emily handed him her canteen and compass. "Let me just get my hiking boots on and I'll be set."

"Why don't we just stay here with Emma and Emily?" Hannah suggested in a slightly panicky voice; for a number of different reasons, the absolute LAST thing she wanted to do was go hiking alone with Dave.

"Come on, I know you've been looking forward to this. Besides, it was Emma who acted up last night, not you, so you shouldn't be punished," Dave said as he tied the laces of his own boots.

Still unsure about the situation, Hannah chewed on her lower lip as she decided what to do. She finally gave a little nod of agreement; if she was really going to live under his care for the next three years, she wouldn't be able to avoid being alone with him.

Five minutes later, the two of them started off for the woods behind the cabin while Emma and Emily stayed behind and watched a movie before going swimming. Once they hit the edge of the woods, Hannah saw there was a trail cut into the forest. "I cut the path when I first bought the place. It took awhile, but it was worth it," Dave told her.

She nodded. "Which way?"

"Well, if we go that way," he pointed to the right, "we'll go up an incline and eventually we'll have a good view of the property and all of the woods. But if we go this way," he pointed to the left, "We'll end up at an inlet of the creek that forms kind of a small lake. It's your choice."

"Hmmmm," the teen thought out loud. "Let's go to the lake." Dave nodded in agreement and they started toward the small lake. Both of them were fairly quiet on the hike, until they passed by a large patch of berries. Without thinking, Hanna grabbed a handful and began eating them as she walked.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dave asked sharply as he knocked the rest of the berries out of her hand. "You should _never _eat any berries you come across in the woods; they could be poisonous!"

"God, would you chill out?" Hannah asked sharply. "The berries aren't poisonous, they're elderberries; I learned how to identify edible plants when I was nine years old."

"Oh," Dave said, relieved that he wouldn't have to rush her to the nearest hospital to have her stomach pumped. "How did you learn to do it?"

The teen shrugged, "Dad was big on survival skills, so every summer he would take me, mom and Emma on a trip to the mountains in Colorado. We had to find and catch everything we ate or drank so I learned how to identify edible plants pretty quickly."

"And Emma? Can she do this?" Dave wondered.

Hannah shook her head, "No, both she and mom _hated _the trips and they usually stayed behind at the tent while dad and I went out."

"Do you hunt too?" He asked, liking the fact that he might have found a hunting partner. His hopes were dashed when the girl made a face and shook her head.

"Ugh, no! I was usually in charge of catching the fish for us to eat, but dad did the shooting," she told him. "I mean, I know how to shoot…I'm a pretty good shot in fact, but I couldn't bring myself to actually shoot an animal."

"You know how to shoot? What kind of gun?"

She shrugged, "Dad had a bunch of bolt action rifles, but he also brought along big guns that probably weren't legal. After mom died, he wanted to make sure I could protect Emma if anything happened or anyone came looking for him at the house when he wasn't there, so he trained me to shoot a Smith & Wesson 9mm and a Glock G22."

"Wow, you're probably better trained than some of the agents I know," he told her, thinking about a certain genius he knew.

"Yeah, well, now that you know I can take care of myself, you can focus on Emma," she said, wanting some of her independence back. Maybe if he knew she could defend herself, he'd leave her alone. Unfortunately it was not to be.

"I know you can take care of yourself, Hannah, but you don't have to anymore. You've had adult responsibilities thrust upon you since your mom died, but maybe now it's time for you to go back to being a kid. I want to focus on both Emma _and _you."

"But _why_?" She asked, exasperated. "I've asked you a ton of times why you want to suddenly be saddled with two kids and each time you give me some BS about having wanted children in the past-"

"It's _not _BS, Hannah, I really didwant kids; I've wanted them each time I've been married. I'm sorry if you don't believe that, but I don't know what else I can do to convince you of that" he said frustrated. "You're just going to have to trust that I really _do_ want you and your sister in my life!"

"Why should I trust you?" She asked loudly. "I don't know anything about you!"

"Well let's remedy that," he said as she sat down on a tree stump. "You have questions for me?" The teen nodded. "Fine, fire away."


	13. Chapter 13

Peace, Love and War-Chapter 13

**~Be sure to check out the Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum for this month's challenge, many open discussion threads and this week's author of the week, pandorabox82.**

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><p>"Fire away?" Hanna repeated, sitting on a large rock across from him.<p>

Dave nodded, "Yup, ask me whatever you want and I'll answer honestly but for every question you ask, I get to ask one in return. Deal?"

The teen thought for a moment; she had a bunch of questions for him but did she really want to give up her own closely held information in return? She finally decided that the trade he was offering was worth it, so she nodded. "Okay, deal."

"Go ahead then," Dave told her, hoping she wouldn't ask anything that was too complicated or personal. His hopes were soon dashed.

"So what's the deal with you and Emily?" Hannah asked as she took canteen off of her shoulder and took a long drink from it.

"What do you mean?"

"You obviously love her and she loves you, so are you two going to get married?"

Dave sighed, "It's complicated."

"What's so complicated about it? When two people fall in love, don't they usually get married? Or are you worried that if you marry her, the relationship will go south like your other three marriages?"

"How do you know about my other marriages?"

"It's called the internet, Dave," Hannah said in a typical teenager way; one that made him feel like the dumbest person on the planet. "Do you really think I'd live with you without argument without checking you out?"

Dave almost snorted at the 'without argument' comment, but wisely kept it to himself. "My other marriages failed for a number of different reasons but the main reason was children."

"Children?"

Dave nodded, "My first wife wanted them but, for whatever reason, she just couldn't get pregnant. We went to many doctors and they all told us there were no problems with either of us, but she just couldn't conceive."

"So you left her?" Hannah asked, incensed at the thought of a man leaving his wife simply because of her inability to give him children.

"_No_," he said, "She left me; she didn't believe that she wasn't disappointing me and she couldn't live with that, so she left. I pretty much begged her to stay, but she told me to go out and find a woman who could give me children."

"But you didn't, you never had any, so what happened there?" She asked.

"I waited awhile to get married again and my second wife came along after I'd written my first best-seller. All of my friends tried to warn me; they could see the dollar signs in her eyes the first minute they met her but me, Mr. Profiler Extraordinaire, was too blinded by infatuation," he admitted, looking at the ground. "As soon as we were married, she changed her tune; suddenly it was all about lavish vacations and furnishing the various mansions she wanted to buy. When we talked about kids, she pretty much put the kibosh on it, even though she had been gung ho about it during our engagement. She finally got tired of me pestering her about it and filed for divorce."

Hannah remained silent as she processed the information and Dave continued. "Wife number three…well, that was a marriage that probably never should've happened. I was still reeling from the breakup of my second marriage and I'd thrown everything into both my work with the FBI and my writing career. It lasted all of eight months before she left me," he said. "I'm not exactly proud of my past but it's who I am."

"Do you still talk to your ex-wives?" Hannah asked, purely out of curiosity. She'd never known anyone who had been married that many times; heck, most of her friends had parents who had been married to each other for over twenty years.

"I occasionally talk to my first wife, but the other two have completely cut ties with me."

"So we're back to the Emily question," the teen said. "What's going to happen with her? Are you going to marry her? Is she going to be our guardian along with you?"

"I'm not sure what to tell you about that, Hannah;" he responded honestly. "I know that I love her and I want her to be a part of my life. I also want her to be in the picture more but I won't do that unless both you and Emma are comfortable with it. So I guess one of my questions for you is how do you feel about Emily?"

The teen shrugged. "She's cool, I wouldn't mind it if she was around more."

Dave took that as high praise from the teenager. "How do you think Emma feels about her?"

"Emma loves everyone, so I think you're safe there."

He let out a sigh of relief at Hannah's answers; while he would've chosen the girls over Emily if he'd had to, he didn't want to break up with her and he was glad that Emma and Hannah seemed to really like her. Although he couldn't imagine anyone not liking her.

"So, do you have any more questions for me?" He asked nervously, hoping that she had gotten what she needed from him. Luck was not on his side.

"Why weren't you ever around when we were younger?" Hannah asked. "I mean, you and my dad were supposedly great friends, yet I only met you once or twice when I was little and Emma had never met you before now, so where were you?"

"Between your dad's work overseas and my profiling and writing careers, we just never had time. Add to that your dad's constant moves with each assignment and it led to us not seeing each other much. But Hannah, if I'd known how rough it had gotten for you after your mom died, I would have come around more."

"Whatever," she said and then she paused, as if she was working up the courage to ask the next question. She finally took a deep breath and asked, "Do you think my dad is really dead?"

Dave closed his eyes briefly as he thought about how he should answer. He knew Hannah didn't believe he was dead, or she didn't _want _to believe it. Either way, his answer could wreck the fragile relationship they'd built so far, but he'd promised her complete honesty and that was what he was going to give her. "I do, Hannah," he said gently and then watched as her face crumpled.

"But why? He could just be on a mission somewhere," she argued and Dave could hear the desperation in her voice.

"Honey, I've dealt with the military before and if they weren't sure about your father's death, they wouldn't have notified you," he said gently. "Plus, the army is notoriously stingy about giving out death benefits for soldiers so they wouldn't do that unless they are absolutely certain your father is dead. Finally, I think Mark would've somehow contacted either you or me if he was alive somewhere, just to put our minds at ease." He saw a tear spill out of her eye and roll down her cheek and he felt his heart break. "I know that wasn't the answer you wanted to hear, but I promised I would be honest with you."

"I know and I appreciate it," she said as she swiped her cheek with the back of her hand and then took a shuddery breath. "So what questions do you have for me?"

"Hmmmm," Dave said, thinking out loud. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Laughing, Hannah asked, "Really? You can ask me just about anything you want to, and you're asking me _that_?"

"Hey," he protested good-naturedly as he got up from the tree stump he'd been sitting on, "I hardly know anything about you. Sure, I was able to get your family info, your blood-type and your history from your social services file, but I don't know what makes you tick. Now your sister, on the other hand…"

"Yeah, Emma is the chattiest person you'll ever meet," Hannah said as she stood up. "In fact, I've had problems teaching her not to tell her life's story to total strangers."

"Well that's something we'll have to work on," Dave muttered, not wanting his new daughter to fall victim to 'stranger danger.' "But you didn't answer my question."

"A doctor," Hannah replied as they resumed their hike. "I want to be one of those research doctors who cures diseases; I really like math and science and I figure that will help me get into medical school."

He smiled, "I can totally see that. You must get pretty good grades to be thinking about medical school."

She nodded, "I do well enough," she said modestly but the truth was, she got mostly A's in her classes.

"What's your favorite food?" He asked for his next question.

Hannah thought for a moment before answering, "Mashed potatoes and gravy."

"Favorite color?"

"Yellow," she responded, thinking about the bedroom that was waiting for her back at the house. As much as she had been against redecorating it, because she did not want to put down roots in DC, the room had turned out to be very pretty and exactly what she had envisioned.

As they made their way to the lake, Dave continued to pepper the girl with questions and, as they got closer to their destination, the questions became more substantial but, to his surprise, Hannah continued to answer them and he felt like he may have turned a corner with her…that is until he unknowingly asked a question about a taboo topic.

"So what's up with you and your dad's team?" He asked innocently. "The few times Emma has talked about them, you've cut her off and changed the topic. Did something-"

Hannah stopped dead in her tracks. "NO!" She said forcefully, to Dave's surprise. "That is one thing you don't get to ask me about!"

Dave took a step backwards and held his hands out in front of him, almost as if the teen in front of him was a spooked horse. "Okay Hannah, I'm sorry, I won't ask about them again." In his mind he amended that promise; he wouldn't ask _her _about them again, but he sure as hell would pump his other daughter for information. Something had obviously happened with them that had affected her badly and he would be damned if he'd be kept in the dark about it.

"Good," she snapped, her posture stiff and her jaw set tightly.

"The lake is right through those trees," Dave told her in an effort to change the subject. She gave him a sharp nod and then stalked along the path towards the water. He followed her and for a few minutes he watched as she sat down on the small sandy area and just stared at the water. He finally moved towards her and sat down next to her, wondering if he'd blown the little bit of progress he'd made with her. After awhile, he was about to suggest they head back to the cabin when she finally spoke up.

"I run," she said, still staring out at the lake.

"What?" He asked, not sure if he'd heard her correctly.

"I like to run. In the mornings," she clarified as she gave him a sideways glance. "I wasn't able to do it while Emma and I were living in our apartment since I didn't want to leave her alone, but I'd like to start doing it again. I don't know if that's your thing or not, but you're welcome to join me if you want."

Thankfully for Dave, running actually was his thing. Sure, he preferred to do it on a treadmill in the comfort of his own home or in the FBI gym, but he would change his venue if it meant breaking down more barriers between the two of them.

"I would like that, thanks," he said, trying not to sound too eager. He was about to say something else when the sound of thunder rumbled in the distance. "Sounds like we're in for storms, we'd better get back."

Hannah nodded, stood up and went back to the trail. Dave followed and, while the conversation was more strained on the way back, he knew by her invitation that he hadn't completely blown the afternoon with her.

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"So how was your afternoon with Emma?" Dave asked Emily as he slid into bed next to her later that night. It was the first moment they'd had to themselves since he and Hannah had returned from their hike.

"Exhausting," Emily said tiredly as she snuggled up to him. "I thought we would just watch a couple of movies while you and Hannah were gone but, in Emma's world, one does not just sit and watch the screen. No, we played dress-up, hide and seek and we made snacks while the movies were running. Then we played with her Barbie dolls, I was Skipper by the way, before we finally drew pictures."

"Is that second picture on the fridge yours?" Dave asked, barely able to keep a straight face. "The house was very pretty; although I'm not sure I would've made the sky green."

"Shut up," she said, lightly slapping his chest. "She wouldn't share her favorite colors; green was all that was left!"

"I'm sure that's the reason for your interesting choice of colors," he said with laughter in his voice.

Emily just shook her head. "How'd it go with Hannah?"

He sighed, "It was going great for awhile; she asked me some questions, which I answered honestly, and then I asked her some light ones, which she answered, but then I ruined it by asking about her dad's team."

"She didn't want to talk about them?"

"No, she was very clear about that," Dave said shaking his head. "Something happened with them, Em, something bad. The way her entire demeanor changed was scary. She told me I could never ask about them and then she clammed up about everything."

"Are you going to have Garcia go digging?"

"What do you think?" He asked rhetorically. They were both silent for a moment as they pondered what might have happened and then Dave spoke again. "She threw me for a loop though; she wants to know what your role is going to be in their lives."

"What did you tell her?" Emily asked carefully. She and Dave really hadn't talked about the future since the girls had entered their lives.

"I told her I wasn't sure what the future held," he told her. "God Em, I love you and I want you to be a part of my life…of _our _lives, but I'll understand if you don't-"

"I _do_, Dave," she said forcefully. "I want to be a part of this family."

"I'm glad to hear that," he said as he reached behind him and opened the nightstand drawer. He pulled out a small jewelry box. "Do you want to make it permanent?" He opened the box to reveal a silver banded engagement ring.

"Dave, I…I…" For the first time in her life, Emily was speechless, so she just looked at him with a shocked expression.

"Emily, I was going to propose to you the night that I left to find the girls in Wisconsin. I had a romantic dinner planned and then I was going to bring you back here and propose to you in front of the fire but obviously those plans didn't work out."

"Dave, I-" Emily tried interrupting, but he was on a roll.

"I never want you to think I'm proposing to you just so I'll have help with the girls, because I'm not. I love you, Emily Prentiss, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. If I wasn't such a chicken shit, I would've asked this question long ago." He paused to catch his breath and tried to read Emily's expression.

"Yes, of course I'll marry you!" She said happily. "I love you more than I ever thought was possible!"

"Oh thank God," he breathed as he pulled her into his arms. "I love you so much."

"Dave, as much as we love each other, we have to think about how this will affect the girls," Emily said, bringing them back down to earth.

"They both love you, probably more than me, so I don't think they'll have a problem with it."

"But what will it mean for the guardianship hearing? Will they still let you-"

"Us," Dave interrupted. "If we're going to be married and raising them together, I want you to be an equal parent to them, if you're okay with that."

"I am," she told him, "But will it hurt our chances of getting them? Will the court see this as a ploy to make our lives seem more stable?"

"I doubt it," Dave said, "But I have a meeting scheduled with my attorney on Tuesday; we'll both go meet with him and see what he says, but regardless of his answer, I still want to marry you."

And with that, their discussion ended and they celebrated their engagement well into the night.

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><p><em>AN 2: Wow, when I started writing this chapter, I did not have this ending in mind but the muse wants what it wants._


	14. Chapter 14

Peace, Love and War-Chapter 14

**~Be sure to check out the Chit Chat on Author's Corner for new threads and challenges!**

**~When I first started this chapter, I thought it would be 2,500 words max but it kind of snowballed. I thought about posting it as numerous chapters, but since it's been awhile since I updated it, I decided to post it as a MONSTER chapter. Enjoy!  
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**~Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed this story! Reviews keep me motivated.  
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><p>"A little winded?" Emily asked rhetorically as Dave stumbled through the kitchen door and beelined it for the fridge. He had been out running with Hannah and he was exhausted.<p>

"I don't know how the kid does it," he said breathlessly after he drained a full glass of water. "We've been running together for a week now and she keeps getting faster while I feel like I'm gonna die."

"She's fourteen, Dave, and you're very much not," Emily told him with a laugh.

"Yeah, but still! I'm in pretty good shape, but she's killing me out there!"

"Where is she?" Emily asked as she glanced at the kitchen clock. "If we want to get to your folks house by eleven, we're going to have to leave in about an hour."

"After she dropped my sorry carcass off here, she decided to run another mile," he told her as he poured himself another glass of water. "But she said she'd be home and ready to go by eleven."

"She'd better be; the last thing I want to do is piss off your mother."

It had been nearly three weeks since the girls had come to live with Dave, and almost one since he'd asked Emily to marry him. While they'd planned on getting a quickie marriage at the Justice of the Peace office, after consulting with Dave's lawyer they decided to wait and have a more traditional wedding. The lawyer was afraid that if they got married too quickly it would both seem like a ploy to make them look stable and it could backfire and make them look impulsive to the judge and since Dave, and now Emily, wanted to eventually adopt the girls, they wanted to make a good impression on everyone so they pushed the wedding off until the following spring.

It was just as well that they had waited, since the week was busier than any of them had ever imagined it would be. Emily returned to work, as normal, on Monday leaving Dave to get the girls set up in DC. The first trip had been to his family doctor and, to his surprise, they had been deemed to be in perfect health. It wasn't that he thought they would be sick or anything, but after living on their own for months without many fresh fruits or vegetables, he'd expected a few problems but there were none.

After the doctor, he'd taken them to his dentist and it was there where he faced another tantrum from his youngest daughter. She was fine as they walked in and she was fine when she got into the dentist's chair but as soon as the dentist approached her, she began screaming and crying. Hannah had to go first to show her that it was no big deal and even then, Dave had to hold her on his lap in order to get her to open her mouth for the dentist. Thankfully she didn't have any cavities because God only knew how she would have reacted to the dentist drilling in her mouth.

The next day, they paid a visit to Garcia and, while the girls got a tour of the Quantico campus from Morgan and Reid, he and Garcia researched all of the private schools in the DC metro area. As it turned out, one of the highest rated schools was attached to his best friend's church and he'd set up an appointment for himself and the girls to tour it. It was a K-12 catholic school, so the girls would attend the same one, which would make it easier for everyone. After that, he told Garcia about Hannah's reaction to talking about her dad's team and she was worried but, since the team was a Black Ops team, she wasn't able to find any information on them.

It was because of the school that he'd witnessed simultaneous tantrums from both of his daughters. The tour itself had gone fine and they'd loved meeting Father Jimmy, probably because he'd regaled them with embarrassing stories about him from their childhood, but they'd both balked at the sight of the uniforms they would be required to wear. Thankfully for him, they'd kept most of their objections to themselves while at the school, but it was like World War III when they'd gotten home that night. Hannah had a problem with the uniform because…well, it was a uniform and she was very vocal about it.

"There is no WAY I'm going to wear a uniform everyday!" She'd shouted as she stamped her foot. "I like my own clothes, not some stodgy, stick up the ass, preppy uniform!"

"Hannah, just about every private school in the DC area has uniforms," he'd told her as patiently as he could, letting her language slide for the moment.

"Fine, I'll go to a public school! I don't want to go to some place that's going to turn me into a stuck up bitch anyway!" She had shouted back to him. Having had enough of her language and attitude, he'd sent her to her room to calm down.

"What's _your _problem with the uniform?" He'd asked Emma, who had quieted down after seeing her big sister punished.

"It's so dark and sad looking," she had told him as she held up the skirt. "There's no pink or yellow or orange anywhere in it!"

He'd managed to talk Emma into the uniform by promising her she could change into anything she wanted when she got home from school. With Hannah, he'd taken her to visit the local public high school and, after seeing the lack of science classes, the lack of resources in the classrooms and the local gang symbols spray painted everywhere, she had finally gotten on board with the idea of a private school.

"You know my mother is going to want to get to know your mother, right?" Dave asked. "My mom is really big into knowing the in-laws."

Emily sighed. "I know, but let's just get through today, okay? How many people are going to be there?"

"Let's see; my brother Matt has two sons, John has four sons and Paul has one son…plus their wives, and then there's us."

"So in other words, there'll be a ton of loud Italians."

Dave grinned as he leaned over to kiss her. "Get used to it, sweetheart; you're marrying into it."

At that moment, Emma walked into the kitchen looking for her breakfast. "Hi Dave!" She said brightly.

"Morning princess," he responded as he bent down to kiss her head. Before he could, she shoved him away and made a face.

"Eeeuuuuwwww, you stink!" She said. "And you're dripping sweat everywhere!"

"I agree with Emma, you need a shower," Emily told him as she pointed toward the stairs.

"I feel so loved," he said with a grin as he started up the steps.

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Two and a half hours later, they pulled into the driveway of a large, old house in Richmond Virginia. Almost as soon as the car stopped, people poured out of the house and onto the lawn. The girls, who did not come from a big family, were understandably startled and apprehensive about the new development.

"Um, there sure are a lot of people," Hannah said nervously as she stared out the window.

"And they're all boys," Emma said the word 'boy' as though it was a curse word.

"You're both right, but trust me, they're all pretty tame," Dave told them as he got out of the car and opened the back door so the girls could get out.

Hannah slowly got out of the car and once she was out, she stayed close to Emily. Emma moved to the door but then changed her mind. She sat back and shook head, "I don't wanna get out."

"Come on, honey," Dave said. "We drove a long way and a lot of people want to meet you."

"I'm scared," she whispered.

Dave gave her an encouraging smile, "I promise nothing bad will happen, Princess."

The little girl thought for a moment and then nodded, "'Kay," she said as she held her arms out to Dave, who picked her up and carried her on his hip.

After many introductions to Dave's brothers, sisters-in-law and nephews, the four of them made their way into the house. "Hi mom," Dave said as he entered the kitchen and dropped a kiss against her cheek. Sophia Rossi wiped her hands on her apron and then gave him a hug.

"Hello son," she said as she returned the peck on the cheek. "And hello to you, Emma," she said to the girl still in his arms. "Where are Emily and Hannah?"

"I think they got stuck in the crowd," Dave told him. "My sisters-in-law wanted to see the ring I managed to slide on her finger when she wasn't looking."

"It had better be worth a woman of her caliber," his mother warned him as she smiled at Emma, trying to make her laugh. "So far, she's the only woman I've ever met who can tame your wild side."

"Oh, I don't know Sophia, I'm betting that his newfound fatherhood has played more of a part in taming my son's rowdy ways," Nicolo Rossi said as he entered the room. "How you doing, son?" He asked as he tried to hug him, but Emma clung to Dave even harder and she buried her face in his neck. "And how are you doing Emma?" He asked as he tickled her ribs gently. Soon the girl was squealing with laughter.

"Here Dave, I'll take her," Sophia said as she untied her splattered apron. "Come to Nonna, sweetheart." At that moment Emily, Hannah and about five men of various ages all walked into the kitchen. Hannah heard Sophia refer to herself as Hannah's grandmother and it got on her nerves, especially since everyone so far has introduced themselves as her 'cousin,' 'uncle,' or 'aunt.' By the time the last person had been introduced, she had wanted to scream that they weren't her family, that she already _had _a family, but she'd kept quiet with them and she did the same with Sophia.

"Hi Hannah," Sophia greeted her with a kiss to the cheek, as Emma snuggled into her grip.

"Hello Sophia," Hannah said formally. Sophia noticed it, but chose to ignore it, figuring the girl just needed a little more time to get used to their crazy family. Her husband, however, had no such qualms.

"Hannah!" He greeted as he pulled the teen into a bone crushing hug. "I swear you got even prettier since the last time I saw you." Hannah blushed as he released her, but she also wore a smile on her face, so Dave wasn't worried that she was going to kill his dad for the unexpected embrace.

"Okay, enough with the greetings," Sophia declared. "Everyone grab a dish and bring it into the dining room." She then said some words in Italian and everyone jumped to follow her order and, five minutes later the entire Rossi clan was sitting around the enormous dining room table.

The meal was like nothing Hannah and Emma had ever experienced. Both of their parents came from small families and the few members on each side were spread all over the world, due to their jobs. Heck, Hannah couldn't even remember the last time they'd seen their one uncle on their mother's side. But this…this was barely organized chaos! First of all, there was no 'kids table' like most families had, so the cousins were spread out around the giant dining room table, which meant Hannah couldn't remember which kid belonged to which parent since no one was sitting with their parents. Hannah was sitting in the middle of the table, with Dave's brother Matt on one side and Emma on the other, while Dave was at the head of the table and Emily was sitting closer to the far end.

Then there were all of the dishes of food that were being passed with a blinding speed. If this was lunch, Hannah couldn't even imagine what dinner would be like. She slowed the passing down though; she had to look at each dish to make sure she and Emma could eat it. Sophia noticed the lag in the food movement and spoke up.

"Hannah, everything is safe for you and Emma to eat; I used milk substitutes in everything."

The teen was truly touched, no one had ever gone to that much trouble for her and Emma. "Thank you, Sophia," she said in a soft awe. She piled hers and Emma's plates high with the yummy food and, for awhile, she just sat back and listened to the conversations around her. Soon, Dave's siblings were entertaining the newest additions to the family with tales of his childhood antics and both Hannah and Emma found themselves laughing hard along with everyone she reached for seconds, she looked at her 17 year old cousin across the table.

"Hey Phil, you speak Italian, right?" She asked as she put some pasta salad on her plate.

He grinned at her, "You don't grow up in this family without learning some Italian, either in school or by listening to Nonna or Nonno yell at their kids."

"I want to compliment Sophia on her cooking," she told him. "How do you say 'this tastes really good?' in Italian?"

Phil told her, she repeated it back to him and he nodded. Hannah was a little curious about the slight smirk that came over her cousin's face, but she pushed it out of her mind. "Sophia?" She said, in order to gain the older woman's attention.

"What is it, honey?" She asked.

"Questo sa di merda," the teen said with a smile. The smile faded as everyone at table went dead quiet and just stared at her in horrified amazement. Sophia nailed her with a glare, but when she saw the girl's genuine confusion and panic, she knew what she'd said wasn't her fault.

Hannah, who wasn't used to the spotlight, squirmed under the gazes of everyone at the table. "What?" She asked nervously and then looked across the table at her pseudo-cousin. "What did you have me say?" She hissed at him.

"Now it makes sense," Dave's brother Paul said as he smacked the back of his son's head.

"Ow! Dad! What the hell?" The boy said as he rubbed the spot where his dad's hand had connected.

"Watch your mouth at the dinner table!" Dave told his nephew as he gave him another head slap.

The tension turned into amusement and soon everyone was stifling laughter at what Hannah had said. "What did I say?" She asked.

"You told Sophia that her food tasted like shit," Emily told her and she went up a few notches in Sophia's book due to her fluency in Italian.

Hannah was mortified. "Oh my god Sophia! I didn't mean it! I wanted to tell you that your food is delicious!"

"I know that, Hannah," the old woman responded gently. "Don't worry, we're all used to Philip's antics." She turned and glared at her grandson, "And for what you just pulled, you get to clean up from lunch all by yourself."

"Nonna, come on," he whined, remembering all of the dirty cooking dishes that were still in the kitchen, along with the dozens of dishes on the table.

"One more word, young man, and you'll be doing dinner clean up by yourself as well!"

"Yes ma'am," the teen mumbled as he looked down at the table; he knew better than to cross his grandmother and he was fairly certain that no one at the table would stand up for him.

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Two hours later, Hannah found herself in the den at her grandparent's house wishing she was anywhere else. Since it was threatening rain outside, no one was in the large backyard; instead, Phil was in the kitchen cleaning up from the meal, the adults had congregated in the living room and the kids were in the den. One of the cousins had brought his Nintendo Wii and all of the boys were gathered around the TV waiting for their turns while Hannah and Emma sat on the sofa, bored nearly to tears.

"Jesus Christ," Phil said as he entered the room. "I never thought I'd finish cleaning that shit! Thank god Nonna came in to start dinner or I'd probably still be in there scrubbing the fucking floor."

"Hey, do you mind?" Hannah asked, annoyed. "My little sister is in the room. Besides, if you hadn't been such a jerk you wouldn't have gotten busted."

"No," he clarified with a grin. "If you hadn't ratted me out, I wouldn't have gotten busted."

"I haven't known your grandmother very long, but even _I_ know not to mess with her!"

"True, true," Phil said as he grabbed one of the Wii remotes from a cousin. The guys played video games, rough housed and did other 'guy stuff' for another hour before Hanna finally got fed up with things.

"My turn," she said as she stood up. "You guys got any shooting games?"

"Girls don't play video games," one of the younger cousins scoffed.

"Yeah, why don't you see if there are any Barbie dolls lying around," another one said.

Emma, who had been daydreaming, perked up. "Barbie? Does Nonna have a Barbie I can play with?"

"They were just kidding," Hannah told her and then turned back to her cousins. "You can either let me play now, or I can knock you on your butts and play while you're down. Which would you rather have?" She ended with a glare and all of the young cousins backed down. She looked through the games, put a shooting one in the player and grabbed the Wii gun remote.

All of the male cousins watched in awe for the next ten minutes as she hit her target every single time. "Holy shit!" Phil said. "Did Uncle Dave teach you how to shoot like that?" If so, the young man would be having a discussion with his uncle since he'd been begging the man to take him to the shooting range since he was 10 years old.

"No, my dad taught me how; he also taught me how to fight." She saw how bored her sister still looked and changed the subject. "Do you have any of those dancing games? The one with the dance mat?" Phil nodded, pulled out the dance game and the mats that were in a box and the guys in the room let Hannah and Emma have a turn at the Wii.

While people were in various rooms of the house, Sophia Rossi was back in the kitchen beginning the preparations for the evening supper. Even though no one was staying overnight, all of her children, and their children, were staying for dinner and she wanted to prepare a large spread. She had just started making her homemade spaghetti sauce when her oldest son walked into the room.

"Need any help, mom?" He asked as he grabbed a glass from the cabinet. He poured himself a glass of water and sat down on a barstool at the breakfast bar so he was facing her.

"I've got it under control, David," she said, guessing what he really wanted to do was talk to her. "How's it going with the girls?" They had talked about his and Emily's engagement before lunch and Emily had promised she could help out with the wedding planning, which was more than any of Dave's previous wives had ever given her, but they had yet to talk about how fatherhood was treating him.

"It's been interesting," he admitted. "I had to deal with tantrums and tears over the past few weeks, but I think I did okay."

"I'm sure you did, son," Sofia said as she handed her son some cooked tomatoes to peel. "How is Hannah doing with everything?" She knew from previous conversations with her son that the teenager was having problems adjusting to her new life.

"Better," he told her as he tried to pick the thin skin off of the fruit in front of him. "There was an incident a few weeks ago where I was able to gain her trust and our relationship has improved since then. I can tell she's still not very comfortable with me or with living in DC, but I'm hoping it will get better as time goes by." He paused for a second as he put his peeled tomato in the bowl and picked up another one. "Their father...he wasn't the man I thought he was."

"What do you mean?" She asked as she gathered her herbs and spices.

"He wasn't a fan of talking to or listening to his daughters, and it seems like he ran the household like a drill sergeant, when he was there at all. A few weeks ago, Emma had a major tantrum and both girls thought I was going to spank her."

"Okay," Sophia said cautiously, "I understand their fear of the punishment, but it happens; your father and I didn't exactly have a 'hands off' approach with you kids."

"No, this was different; the girls weren't afraid of the punishment, they were afraid of me," he said with a sigh. "Mom, Hannah told me that Mark used to hit them with his belt…that there was no listening or explaining, it was just painful discipline and they thought I was going to be the same way." He then launched into some of the other things the girls had mentioned about their father and, by the end, Sofia was incensed.

"Good Lord, Davie!" She said in soft anger, "Far be it from me to speak ill of the dead, but he sounded like a horrible father! He hurt those two girls both physically and emotionally! I'm glad you have them now because even if he was still alive, he wouldn't deserve them!"

"There's something else," he said, not sure that he wanted to share this part but he knew he needed her words of wisdom. "Someone hurt Hannah…they did something bad to her."

His mother narrowed her eyes, "What do you mean by 'hurt?'

"I mean she's scared to be alone with me, with any man, she's super protective over Emma and she refuses to talk about her father's team. No, that's an understatement; I thought she was going to kick my ass when I asked her offhandedly about her dad's team."

"Do you think…Davie, I'm not the expert here, you are, but it sounds to me like a man hurt her in a…sexual way," Sofia said, close to tears.

"I know, and I don't know what to do about it," he admitted. "She won't talk to me or Emily about it and I don't know if I should push it. At this point I'm not sure _what_ happened or who it was who hurt her. Hell, I'm not a hundred percent sure it wasn't _Mark_ who did something to her."

"How DARE you!" A young voice said loudly from behind them. Both Dave and Sofia turned and found Hannah standing in the doorway to the kitchen and she was shaking with anger.

After playing some a few rounds of the dancing game with her sister, Hannah had gotten thirsty, so she'd reluctantly given the Wii back to the boys. She'd walked to the kitchen with a smile on her face but the smile faded when she heard her guardian talking to his mother. Unfortunately for Dave, she'd arrived at the doorway just as they had started talking about her father's physical discipline style and she'd heard the rest of what they had said about him.

Dave knew he would have to work quickly to save things with his daughter, "Hannah, this isn't what you-" The teen cut him off before he could finish.

"I thought I could trust you!" She shouted, shaking her head slightly. She was so angry and electrified, it seemed as though sparks were shooting from her eyes. "I didn't know that everything I told you would be fodder for family gossip!"

"We weren't gossiping," Sophia said in a panicked voice, "Dave was-" Before she could finish her statement, the teen turned on her.

"And YOU!" She yelled at the older woman. "You never even MET my father! How dare you pass judgment on him? You have NO RIGHT to say he was a horrible father! Sure, he may not have been perfect, but he loved me and Emma! Don't you _ever_ say anything bad about him again!"

"I'm sorry, Hannah," the older woman said softly.

As she continued to glare at the two of them, tears started to pool in her eyes, but unfortunately the tears did not lessen her fury. "Neither one of you has any right to talk about my father! _You_," she jabbed her finger toward Dave, "barely knew him anymore and _you_," she pointed at Sophia this time, "_never_ knew him, so neither of you has any business talking about him at all! My father was a good man; he was just set in his military ways! And after mom died he didn't know what to do with two daughters, but that didn't make him a bad man!"

"You're right, Hannah," Dave agreed in order to placate her. He was amazed at the level anger she was expressing. Sure, she hadn't been happy at the prospect of moving to DC to live with him and she wasn't shy in expressing her displeasure at home, but she'd never exhibited this much emotion in front of him.

"You're damn right I'm right!" She shrieked. "And I never want to talk to either of you ever again!"

By this time, most of the family had heard the commotion and had gathered near the kitchen. As Hannah spun on her heel to leave the room, she ran smack dab into the family patriarch. Half-blind with tears and not caring about anything anymore, she shoved past him and ran out of the house.

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><p><em>AN 2: If you have anything you want to see in this story, please shoot me an email and I'll try to work it in. The next few chapters will be more fluid, so I'll have some leeway in what I write._


	15. Chapter 15

_Peace Love and War-Chapter 15_

**~Be sure to check out the challenges and threads at the Chit Chat on Author's Corner Forum!**

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><p>As she stormed past Dave's stunned relatives, she felt a hand on her arm and heard a gentle voice say, "Hannah." The teen knew that Emily would try to stop her and get her to go back in and talk to Dave and his mother, but that was the last thing she ever wanted to do.<p>

She stopped for a moment and shook her arm out of the woman's grip. "Leave me alone!" she said loudly through clenched teeth. Emily saw the look of fury on the girl's face and backed off. Hannah sped up again and pushed through the front door. She sprinted down the lawn and onto the sidewalk, where she took off in a run.

Back in the house, the family, especially the younger cousins, were buzzing about what had happened. "Did you hear her?" One of the youngest cousins asked in shock and awe. "She…she yelled at Nonna!"

"And Nonna didn't kill her," Phil replied, in the same tone; hell there was one time he'd slightly raised his voice at his grandmother and he'd gotten a taste of her wooden spoon for his troubles.

Back in the kitchen, the patriarch of the family was making his displeasure known to his wife and son. "Dammit you two! I've always told you your gossiping would get you in trouble some day and now it's alienated the _one _person who needed it least! Making assumptions about her father and her old life…you both really screwed the pooch!" Dave and Marie looked ashamed as Nicolo crossed the room, grabbed his jacket and headed for the back door that was just off of the kitchen.

"Where are you going, Nicolo?" Sophia asked, near tears; the absolute _last _thing she had ever wanted to do was make things even more tense with her pseudo-granddaughter, but that is exactly what she had done. A part of her was also ashamed of herself. Sure, she hadn't been gossiping with her son, it was more of a concerned discussion, but she never should have judged her father, especially when the teen was nearby.

"I'm going to find Hannah," he said shortly.

"I'm going too," Dave said as he started to follow his father but Nicolo stopped him before he had taken three steps.

"No David, you and your mother have done MORE than enough this afternoon; stay here and I'll go get her." Dave knew his father was right and he also knew that if she saw him, Hannah would be more likely to run from him. He nodded in agreement and watched as his father left through the back door.

"Nick!" Emily said, running out the door behind him. "When she got to the end of the driveway, she turned right and she runs every morning, so she could have gotten fairly far."

"Thanks Emily," Nicolo said as he mounted his motorcycle and drove off at a breakneck speed, glad that it had stopped raining as the wet pavement would have slowed him down. Since they lived in a small suburb of Richmond, there weren't many places the teen could have gone to and he bet she was headed towards the main part of their small town. As he slowed his bike down, he gave a small smile; sure enough, he spotted Hannah a few yards ahead of him and, while he couldn't see her face, she was walking with a determined stride in her step.

He quickly found a parking space, dismounted his motorcycle and walked quickly behind her. "Hannah," he called out as he got closer to her. Dave had told him that she'd been trained by her father in self-defense and martial arts and he didn't want to startle her and end up with a broken nose.

She glanced over her shoulder, saw who was calling her name and kept walking without saying a word.

"Please come back home with me, sweetheart," the older man said as he caught up with her and tried to match her pace.

Hannah just shook her head defiantly. "No! I can't be around Dave and Sophia right now, I'm too angry at them!"

"Fair enough. How about we grab some coffee?" He pointed to the small, independent coffee shop up the street.

"Fine," she huffed, knowing Nicolo wouldn't just let her go.

They entered the shop, placed their orders and then took their iced coffees to an empty table. Neither of them said anything for a few minutes until Nicolo finally broke the silence.

"So where are you headed?"

"Back to DC," she told him. If it weren't for her sister, she would be headed back to Wisconsin, but she couldn't leave Emma behind. No, she would wait three years until she turned eighteen and then get custody of her.

"With no money?" He asked as he quirked his eyebrow. "I happen to know you left your purse at the house."

Dammit, he was right! She didn't have any money to get home, but that wouldn't stop her. "So I'll hitch," she said with a shrug as she took a drink of her frappucino.

Nicolo set his coffee cup down firmly and nailed her with a hard stare. "If you ever even _think_ about hitchhiking, you won't have to worry about what my son will do to you because there will be nothing left once _I'm_ done with you. Capisce?"

Wide-eyed, Hannah nodded wordlessly. "Good," Nicolo continued. "Look Hannah, Dave has always had a special bond with his mother. Out of all four of her sons, he is the closest to her and vice versa. He always tells her about everything and he seeks her advice for just about everything and, let me tell you, fatherhood is a pretty big life event. He needed her to be a confidant for him, that's why they were talking the way they were."

"I don't care," Hannah said, shaking her head violently. "First of all, he's NOT our father! Everyone keeps calling him that but up until a few weeks ago he was a total stranger to us! Heck, I'm not even a hundred percent sure my dad is dead. And second, if Dave was ANY kind of father, he wouldn't have been talking about me where _everyone_ could hear it!"

"But no one heard it, honey," Nicolo said, wondering exactly what it was his son and wife had said about her.

"But they could have!" The teen argued forcefully. "_I_ heard it! And they have no idea what they're talking about!" She paused to get her anger under control; it wasn't Nicolo she was pissed at and he shouldn't take the brunt of everything. "It wasn't just that they were talking about me…they were also saying bad things about my father and I don't know if I can ever forgive them for that."

She sounded so forlorn at the end of her statement that Nicolo felt tears prick his eyes. "Hannah," he started but the girl continued.

"I miss him, Nicolo," she said sadly, as a few tears streamed down her face. "Yeah, he wasn't the greatest father in the world, but who is? I just…I just wish everything could go back to the way it was. I miss our old house, I miss my friends and I miss my dad."

"Sweetheart, you've had to go through so much in your short life, and I am so sorry for that, but you have to realize things aren't going to go back to the way they were before," he said gently, as he took her hand.

"I know," she said through her quiet tears. They sat like that for awhile before they moved onto other, meaningless topics. After they had finished their drinks, Nicolo glanced at his watch and realized they had been gone for nearly two hours.

"So, if I take you back to the house, can you promise me there won't be bloodshed?" He asked cautiously.

The teen thought for a moment and then nodded. "I'm still really mad at them, but I won't start anything," she promised.

"Thanks honey," Nicolo said gratefully as he stood up. Hannah followed suit and soon the two of them were walking down the sidewalk. Hannah was surprised when Nicolo stopped in front of the motorcycle, reached into a side compartment, pulled out a helmet and handed it to her.

"This is yours?" She asked in surprise. "I'm surprised Sophia lets you ride it."

Nicolo snorted, "Let's just say this bike has been the subject of many vocal discussions," he said with a smirk as he put his own helmet on.

"I can imagine," Hannah remarked as she put the helmet on her head. She fastened the strap under her chin and then got on the motorcycle behind him.

"Hang on tight," he told her as he started it up. She wrapped her arms tightly around his waist as they began the short ride back to the house.

Nicolo knew that Hannah could use all of the time she could get to calm down, so he purposely took the long route home. As they pulled up to the house, they could see that most of the family had migrated outdoors and there was a lively game of touch football going on. Nicolo pulled up to the garage and helped the teen dismount the bike. As she handed her helmet to him, Dave approached the two of them.

"Hannah," Dave started, but she shook her head before he could continue.

"I don't want to talk to you," she said quietly and then walked into the house. Dave took a step to follow her but his father's hand on his arm stopped him.

"Let her go, Dave," he instructed. "It took a lot of talking for me to get her to agree to come back here."

"What did she talk to you about?" Dave asked. The idea of Hannah opening up to anyone was foreign to him.

His father just shook his head, "Nope, I'm not your mother, I'm not going to feed your gossip habit. You wanna know what's going on with your daughter, you find a way to get her to talk to you but my advice for right now is to just leave her alone."

Hannah had stayed near the door when she had gone inside and she smiled when she heard Nicolo's response to Dave's nosiness; it seemed like there was at least _one _family member who knew how to keep his mouth shut. Her internal musings were cut short by her grandmother's voice behind her.

"Hannah, may I talk to you for a moment?" She asked hesitantly. The teen gave a small sigh, turned around and walked the few feet into the kitchen. "I want to apologize for before," the older woman continued. "I shouldn't have made assumptions about your life and I _never _should have said anything about your father; I'm sure he was a good man."

"He was," Hannah said strongly.

"Anyway, I am very sorry for everything that happened."

"I accept your apology, thank you," Hannah said coolly and then left the room. Sophia went back to her cooking with a sigh; she knew she had lost a lot of ground with the girl and she wasn't entirely sure how to get it back.

xxxxxxxxxx

Four hours later, Dave was helping Emma with her bath while Hannah read a book on her bed in her bedroom. Just as she was getting to a really good part, there was a knock on her opened door. She looked up and found Emily in the doorway. "Hey," she said.

"Hey," Emily responded. "Mind if I come in?"

"Sure," Hannah said as she marked the page in her book and set it down. "What's up?" She scooted up so her back was against the backboard and Emily sat down near the middle of the bed.

"I just wanted to see how you were doing; you were quiet on the ride back."

"Yeah, well, between Hannah's kiddie music on the radio, and Dave's insistence on singing '99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, no one could really say _anything_, could they?" She paused for a minute as Emily snorted. "You're not here to tell me to patch things up with him, are you?"

Emily shook her head, "Nope, that stuff is between you and him; I just wanted to get the scoop on Nicolo's motorcycle. I want to get one, but Dave has made it clear that it will happen over his dead body."

"It was really cool!" Hannah said excitedly. "It was neat feeling the wind on my face and hearing the roar of the bike. Plus, the jealousy from all of the cousins was fun too."

"I think between you getting away with yelling at Sophia and getting to ride on Nicolo's motorcycle; all of the cousins and most of Dave brothers were jealous of you," Emily said with a grin.

"Yeah, well Phil is lucky he's still alive; I can't believe what he had me say in front of everyone!"

"Oh my God, that was _hilarious_!" Emily laughed. "I thought Dave's brother Matt was going to choke on his garlic bread when you said that!"

Hannah laughed and she and Emily had a spirited discussion about the craziness of Dave's family. Their conversation was punctured with loud giggles and guffaws and it wasn't long before the bathroom door opened and Emma ran into the room. She looked adorable with her wet hair and her monkey themed pajamas. She didn't say a word as she jumped onto the bed between Emily and her sister.

"What's so funny?" She asked as she landed on the mattress.

Hannah and Emily looked at each other and grinned. "You are!" They said in unison as they began tickling her. She kicked and squealed in delight until they let up on her, and then she and Emily ganged up on Hannah. Finally the two younger girls went after Emily and it became a tickle free for all. They finally stopped when Emily screeched something about wetting her pants and they all lay on the bed, panting and giggling.

"Is everyone okay?" A deep voice asked from the bathroom doorway. Dave had seen the tickle fight evolve and he'd been quick enough to snap some good pictures with his camera phone. He couldn't wait to print and frame some of them and he would have Garcia teach him how to set one of them as his computer background.

"You missed it, Dave!" Emma exclaimed as she jumped into a standing position on the bed. "Hannie and Emmy tickled me and then Hannie and me tickled Emmy and then we all tickled each other! It was great!"

"It sounds like it," he said with a smile as he came further into the room. "But now it's time for a certain little girl to go to bed."

"Aw man! Do I hafta?" Emma asked with a pout.

"Yup," Dave told her as he lifted her up under her arms and set her on the ground.

"Come on, Emma," Emily said as she got off of the bed. "I'll read you a story."

"'Kay. Night Hannie, I love you!" The little girl said as she blew a kiss to her sister.

"Night Em, love you too," she blew a kiss back at her and watched as she and Emily cut through the bathroom to Emma's room. She then looked at Dave through slightly narrowed eyes and waited for him to speak. It didn't take long.

"I'm sorry, Hannah," he said as he sat down on the edge of her bed. He noticed she tensed and edged slightly away from him when he did it. "I shouldn't have said what I did about your father."

"No, you shouldn't have," the teen said coolly.

"And my mother and I should have had our conversation in private," he continued.

"_No_, you shouldn't have had that conversation _at all_!" Hannah said forcefully.

"Look," he said, trying not to let his annoyance show. "You might have seen that as gossiping, but I was talking to my mother about my child; it's a normal thing to do." He saw her open her mouth to argue and he held up his hand to stop her. "I know, I know, you and Emma aren't my kids, but you might as well be! And my mother has always been the person I turn to for advice; she's my confidante so what you consider 'gossip,' I consider to be a conversation with my mother. But anyway, I'm sorry about what happened and I'm sorry I had Garcia go digging around your past and-"

"WHAT?" The teen screeched as she sat bold upright in her bed. "You told GARCIA? You had her look into things that are none of her business? They are none of YOUR business!"

Shit, he couldn't quite remember what he'd told his mother earlier in the afternoon; it all kind of jumbled together after Hannah's explosion.

"You had NO right to do that!" She continued.

"I have every right!" He shot back. "You're my kid now and I will protect you and Emma with everything I have, but I have to know what I'm protecting you from!"

"You don't have to protect me from _anything_!" She yelled back. "I don't know what you think happened, but NOTHING happened to me! Just let it go!"

Dave took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Fine," he said even though he had no intention of letting anything go since he didn't believe her assertion. "I'll let you go to sleep." He got up and walked toward the door. Once there, he turned around and looked at her again. "Are we going running in the morning?"

"No," Hannah practically snarled. "_We're _not going running tomorrow, _I_ am!" With that she flipped onto her side so she wouldn't have to look at him.

"Alright," he said softly as he turned the overhead light off. "Sleep tight." He shut the door behind him and walked the few steps to the master bedroom.

"How'd it go?" Emily asked as he entered the room.

"You didn't hear it?" He asked rhetorically as he started to unbutton his shirt. "Did Emma go down okay?"

Emily nodded, "She was asleep before the big bad wolf blew the second pig's house down."

"Good," he said with a defeated sigh as his shirt hit the floor, followed closely by his jeans.

"She'll come around again, Dave," his fiancé said as she got into bed. "This is just a setback."

"I don't know, Em," he told her as he climbed into bed next to her. "She uninvited me from running with her."

"Shit," Emily said softly, knowing that must have hurt him.

"Yeah. If it's possible, I think she hates me more now than she did when she first moved in here."

"It'll pass," Emily tried reassuring him again. "You just have to give her time."

She felt him nod as he gathered her into his arms. The day had been an exhausting one, and they were both content to just sleep in each other's arms.


	16. Chapter 16

_Peace, Love, and War-Chapter 16_

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><p>As he walked up to the second floor of his house, Dave smiled tiredly at the various sounds he could hear. Having lived alone for most of his adult life, except while he was married, the constant buzz in the house had taken some getting used to. Currently, he could hear Emma's excited chatter and splashing, Emily's soft rebukes not to splash her too much while in the bathtub, and Hannah's music playing from her bedroom. Thankfully, the teen didn't have too horrible of a taste in her music selections and she tended to play it at fairly low levels. As he reached the landing of the second floor, he heard Hannah's voice over the music. He wondered who she was talking to, as he had just seen her cell phone on the charger in the kitchen and she didn't have a landline in her bedroom. He knocked on her door and, once he got permission to enter, he saw that she was sitting on her bed talking to her open laptop.<p>

"Hey, I thought we agreed that you wouldn't use your computer in your bedroom?" He said, trying to sound friendly about it. In the two months since she had caught him and his mother discussing her situation, things had been hot and cold with the teen. He remembered back to Emily's prediction of taking 'two steps forward and one step back' with the her, but it seemed more like they were taking 'one step forward and two steps back.' He wondered if things would ever be as easy between the two of them as they were between him and Emma.

"I'm skyping with my friend in Germany and Emily said I could use my laptop in here so I could have some privacy," Hannah told him in an irritated tone of voice that generations of teenagers before her had perfected. She thought the 'no computer in her bedroom' rule was beyond stupid, especially since she'd had the laptop since she was twelve and nothing bad had ever come from having it in her bedroom, but both Dave and Emily worried about internet predators and her arguments had fallen on deaf ears.

"Do you mind?" She asked in the same tone of voice. "The whole point of skyping in here, instead of in the great room, is so I can talk to my friend _alone_."

Dave, who was beginning to get tired of her attitude, nodded and backed up toward the door. "Just make sure to put it back downstairs when you're done." With that, he left the room and, as he closed her door, he heard her friend ask, "So was that him?"

Knowing his pseudo-daughter was about to talk about him, he stood outside of her bedroom door and shamelessly eavesdropped on the conversation between the teens.

"Yeah, that was him," Hannah said unhappily. Her friend in Germany looked confused.

"He didn't sound so bad," she said. "From what you've told me, I expected a cross between Dracula and Godzilla." Dave had to hold back a snort of laughter as he listened in the hallway.

"Yeah, well you don't live here," Hannah said huffily. "God Jill, he's always in my business! Telling me what to eat and when to sleep and he wants to know how school is going and who my friends are; it drives me insane!"

"Um, newsflash Hannah, dads are _supposed _to do that! My dad is always up in my grill. Does he do the same thing with Emma?" Jill asked, trying to hide a smile.

"Well…yeah, but that's not all. He and Emily are always around and they help out at our school and stuff. Plus, they've totally taken over with Emma; I don't get any say in what she does any more!"

"Again, parents are supposed to do that."

"But my dad never did stuff like that; mom did, before she died, but I was lucky if dad knew what grade I was in." Dave, who was still listening in the hallway, clenched his fists in anger; the more he learned about his former friend, the more he wished the man was still alive so he could kick his ass. He wanted to go in there and tell Hannah what he really thought of her father, but he knew that would do irreparable damage to their relationship, so he stayed quiet. Thankfully for him, her friend didn't.

"No offense, Han, but your dad was an asshole," Jill said. "The way he treated you and Emma was just…well, it was just wrong."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Hannah snapped. "He was just really busy, his military stuff kept him away from us."

"That's bullshit and you know it!" Jill fired back. "My dad is in the military too and he still makes time for me _and_ he's not a complete asshole to me like your dad was with you."

'I like this kid,' Dave thought as he remained in the hallway; Hannah's friend was telling her like it was and she was probably the only person who could do so and still remain breathing.

"For Christ's sake, Jill; my dad is _dead_. Can't you cut him a break?"

The teen shook her head, "I'm sorry about your dad only because I know you loved him, but he treated you and Emma like shit, Han. He was hardly ever around and when he was, he treated you like a servant _and _he expected you to be Emma's mother!"

"Can we please change the subject?" Hannah asked testily, trying to think up an excuse so she could cut the conversation short with her friend.

"Sure," Jill said. "How was your birthday?"

"That was actually pretty cool," Hannah said with a smile as she thought back to the previous month. "We stayed in DC, but Emily and Dave have a bunch of contacts here and we got a lot of behind the scenes tours at museums and stuff. It was neat."

"God, that must have been nerd heaven for you!"

"It was," Hannah agreed, laughing. "And then Dave and Emily took us to a restaurant that's run by one of the former _Top Chef_ contestants. It was awesome! Plus, they said I can have a late birthday party once I make some friends around here.

"That's great Han. How is Emma doing?" Jill asked. Since she and Hannah had spent so much time together while their dads were posted at the same army base, she had gotten to know and love Emma too.

"She loves it here and she's doing really well."

"And you? Other than the whole 'getting used to involved and caring parents' thing again, how are things going for you?"

Dave once again held his breath on the other side of the door; Hannah was not one to open up about her thoughts and feelings so he had no idea what was going on in her head and he was afraid she would hear him if he breathed too loud.

"It's…weird, Jill," Hannah said after a moment. "There are times when I love it here and times when I absolutely hate it. They're trying to get permanent custody of us and then they want to go for full adoption and I just…I don't know, it all happened so fast and it's just so different."

"I know Han, but it sounds like it's different in a good way. Besides, if it gets too bad, just remind yourself that you'll be going off to college in less than three years," her friend told her. "Speaking of which, how is your new school out there?"

"I have to wear a uniform," Hannah said, making a face. "But other than that, it's pretty good…actually, it's great. They have an awesome science department and my biology teacher said if I get an A in his class this year, he'll recommend me for AP science next year. And I've made a few friends, so I'm not eating lunch in isolation anymore."

"Cool! So what-" At that moment, a voice could be heard in the background on Jill's side of the conversation. "Okay mom!" The teen called out and then turned back to the computer screen. "My mom wants me to wrap it up. It's almost 6:00am here and she wants me to start getting ready for school."

"Okay," Hannah said. "It's so cool that your dad isn't stationed in freaking Timbuktu anymore and we can talk regularly again!"

"I know! I'll email you to set up another chat time this week, 'kay?" Jill asked and Hannah nodded. They heard Jill's mom in the background again, so they quickly signed off.

From out in the hallway, Dave heard her shut her computer so he quickly retreated to his bedroom and breathed a sigh of relief. While things weren't perfect with his oldest daughter, they were better than they could be and he was relieved to hear she was fairly happy in DC, because both he and Emily loved having the two girls in their lives. As that thought went through his mind, he had no idea that those feelings of love and happiness would be put to the test the very next night.

xxxxxxxxxx

The following evening, after the dinner dishes had been cleared and the kitchen cleaned, Hannah went up to her bedroom to work on her homework while Emma played with her toys and Emily and Dave watched a documentary on PBS. During the show, Emily noticed that Emma had left the room but she figured the girl had gone up to her bedroom to play with her many toys that were up there and she didn't think much about it. Once the documentary wrapped up she gave her fiancé a kiss and headed up the stairs with the intent to take a long, hot, bubble bath. On the way to the master bedroom, she knocked on Hannah's door.

"Come in," the teen called out and Emily poked her head in the room.

"I've been dying to take a bubble bath all day, is it okay if I use your tub?" The tub in Hannah and Emma's bathroom was bigger than the one in the master bathroom and Emily wanted to lose herself in it for a little while.

"Go ahead," Hannah said as she remained focused on her textbook. "Since tomorrow's Saturday, I don't have to be up early so I'll shower in the morning."

"Thanks," Emily said and then she shut the door and continued down the hallway. She got to Emma's room and was surprised to find the door open and the room empty. She walked in and saw that the bathroom door was closed and she heard the toilet flush. She waited on the other side of the door for Emma to come out but, to her surprise, she heard the toilet flush again…and then again.

"Emma," she called out as she knocked on the door. "Is everything all right in there?"

"Yup," the little girl called out, as she flushed the toilet again.

"Are you sick?" She asked through the door as she mentally reviewed their dinner in her head. Nope, nothing containing dairy was served, so she was safe there.

"No, I'm fine!" Emma called back. Emily was torn between wanting to respect her daughter's privacy and her worry for what might be going on. She hesitated for a second and then opened the door. As soon as she did, she saw Emma drop something into the toilet and then hit the flush handle.

"What are you doing?" She asked as she approached the girl.

"My teacher told us today that smoking is bad for you; it can make your lungs sick and other yucky stuff." As she said this, Emma reached into a box on the counter, pulled an item out, and dropped it into the toilet with a large plop. A feeling of horror crept into Emily's mind as she saw exactly what Emma was flushing into the DC sewer system.

"Emma, are those Dave's cigars?" No. There was no _way _that their six year old girl was flushing Dave's Cuban cigars down the toilet! Not his insanely expensive, rare and _illegal_ Cuban cigars?

"Yup!" She said brightly. "I'm helping him quit smoking, that way he won't get sick." Emily could feel her insides liquefy in dread as Emma gave her a sunny smile. Emily knew the back story on those cigars; apparently Dave had a few contacts in the CIA and one of them had sent him that box as a retirement gift. He had smoked one cigar upon receiving the box, one when the girls had come to live with and one when they had gotten engaged and that was it; otherwise, they were saved for _very _special occasions. As she looked into the box, she saw there were only three cigars left, which meant Emma had flushed six of them.

"Shit," Emily mumbled as reached for her cell phone. Surely her mother had contacts in Cuba, they could get her some cigars and she could replace them before he realized they were missing. He didn't smoke them that often, so it shouldn't be a problem, right? Her plan might have worked if Dave hadn't chosen that exact moment to check up on his youngest daughter.

"Hey, what's going on in he-IS THAT ONE OF MY CIGARS?" He shouted as he looked down into the toilet.

Emma nodded with a self-satisfied smile on her face. "Smoking's bad for you," she admonished, "So I got rid of your cigars." Her expression changed to one of fear when she saw the angry look on her guardian's face. "I was just trying to help."

"HELP?" Dave roared as he tried to fish the cigar out of the toilet. "You call this _helping_? You went into my study, you got into my private things and you DESTROYED them! You know better than to take things that don't belong to you!"

Emily saw how the little girl's face crumpled in response to his ranting and she tried to salvage the situation. "Emma, why don't you go into your room and wait for us, okay?" The little girl nodded tearily and ran out of the room. She didn't stop in her room though, instead she ran out into the hallway and burst into her sister's room.

"Hey, what's wrong Em?" Hannah asked as she removed her ear buds. She had been listening to her iPod at a fairly loud level and she had missed the brouhaha that had taken place in the bathroom.

"Dave's mad at me!" She cried as she launched herself at her sister. Hannah, still not sure as to what had happened, gathered her sister in her arms. As she cried, Emma told her what happened and by the end, her voice was hitching.

"What-what if he sends me away, Hannie? He wa-was so mad! What if he does-doesn't want me to live here anymore?"

"Aw Em, he's not going to send you away, he's just mad right now but he'll get over it."

"I was just trying to help," Emma said as she wiped her face with her hands. "I don't want anything bad to happen to him."

"And he'll realize that once he calms down," Hannah assured her as she hugged her tighter. The two of them stayed like that for a few minutes until Emma calmed down a little.

"Will I still be his princess?" She asked through her tears. Her real dad had never used a nickname for her and she kind of liked that Dave had come up with one for her. Before her sister could give her an answer, they both heard Emily calling Emma's name. "No!" She exclaimed as she scrambled out of her sister's embrace and off of the bed. "What if they're still mad at me? I have to hide!" She quickly ducked into her sister's closet and shut the door.

Hannah just shook her head slightly and went back to her reading. Less than a minute passed before Emily knocked on her door and came in. "Hey, do you know where Emma went?"

"Nope, haven't seen her," the teen said while looking pointedly at the closet. She knew Emma was listening and she didn't want to rat her out, but she also didn't want Emily to worry.

Emily got the non-verbal message and she said, "Oh, okay. By the way, can I borrow that sweater we were talking about earlier? It's in your closet, right?" Emily crossed the room in a few steps and opened the closet door. "Oh, there you are!" She exclaimed, feigning surprise as she saw the little girl sitting on the closet floor. "Come on out of there." She extended her hand and Emma let her lead her out of the enclosed space. "Let's start getting you ready for bed."

Emma nodded miserably, "Is Dave gonna kill me?"

"No sweetheart, he's mad but he's not going to kill you," Emily assured her. "Now come on, it's almost your bedtime."

"'Kay. Night Hannie, love you."

"Love you too, Em," her sister responded. As Emma stepped through the door, Hannah asked quietly, "Where's Dave?"

"He's in the basement working off some steam," Emily replied.

Hannah waited a few minutes before making her way down to the basement gym. In it, she found Dave on the treadmill. "Hey," he breathed in greeting as he ran at a fast clip.

"You need to go up and talk to Emma," she told him.

"_No_, what I need to do is run off some of my anger," he said, irritated that, once again, Hannah was trying to tell him how to raise the little girl. "And your sister needs to learn to stay out of people's things."

"Normally I would agree with you, seeing as last week she got into my eyeliner and drew kitten whiskers on her face," Hannah said. "But she thought she was helping you; her teacher told her that smoking is bad and she was trying to keep you from getting sick."

"I smoked those cigars on rare, special occasions; I wouldn't have gotten lung cancer from a stogie every couple of years."

Hannah rolled her eyes and let out a huff of frustration. "_You_ know that and _I _know that, but _Emma_ doesn't. All she knows is that her mom died when she was really young and she just lost her dad and she doesn't want to lose anyone else. Whether we like it or not, you and Emily are the only people we have left."

"Your love and gratefulness are overwhelming," he said sarcastically as he continued to run.

"She's afraid you're going to send her away, that you and Emily aren't going to want her to live here anymore," Hannah told him. "Dave, she's worried that she isn't going to be your princess anymore."

Dave hit a button and the treadmill stopped. "She really thinks that?" The teen nodded. "Okay, you're right, I _do _need to speak to her, but it won't just be nice words; I'm going to punish her for what she did."

"But-" Hannah tried arguing but Dave wouldn't let her.

"Hannah, she went into my study, which she knows is off limits, she went through my things and then she destroyed them. What if I'd had crime scene photos in there? What if she had destroyed a case file and, because of it, some serial killer got off scot-free? No matter what her intentions were, I can't have her going through my things…actually, she needs how to respect everyone's privacy."

"I suppose you're right," the teen said after a moment.

"That must've been hard for you," Dave said with a slight grin.

"Whatever, I'm going back up to my room. Just go easy on her, okay? Don't destroy something of hers just to teach her a lesson."

"I would never do that," he said, knowing that Mark must've done something similar. His dislike for his former friend went up another notch. "I'm going to reinforce the rules and then I'm going to ground her for the weekend."

"Oh," Hannah said as she thought about what he'd said. "I guess that's okay."

"I'm glad you approve," he said wryly as he started for the basement steps. Hopefully the upcoming talk with his youngest daughter would go smoothly.


	17. Chapter 17

_Peace, Love and War-Chapter 17_

**~Be sure to vote in the 3rd Annual Profiler's Choice Awards! The rules and ballots can be found at the Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum.**

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><p>As Dave walked down the second floor hallway, Emily stepped out of their bedroom and nearly bumped into him. "Hey," she said, surprised. "I would've thought it would have taken much longer on the,treadmill to work off your anger."<p>

"It should have," he agreed, "But Hannah came down and set me straight on a few things. It seems our little girl is afraid I'm going to send her away because of what she did, and I can't have her going to bed thinking that."

"No, that would be bad," Emily said.

"But I told Hannah that even though I'm going to reassure Emma, I'm also going to ground her for the weekend. Surprisingly, she's okay with that, not that I would've changed my mind if she hadn't been."

"_You're_ not going to ground her, _we _are," Emily corrected. "I'm going in there with you."

"You don't have to do that, Em."

"Yes I do," she argued. "First, I agree that she needs to be punished; she has to learn that she can't go around destroying people's things even if she believes it's for a good reason, and second, I don't want the girls to see you as the disciplinarian in the family. I don't want this to become a 'wait until your father gets home' kind of household. We're both going for permanent custody and, while I like the fact that the girls see me as sort of a friend, they also have to see me as more of an authority figure."

Dave thought about her words for a moment and then nodded, "You're right. Thanks."

Emily smiled and gave him a quick peck on the lips. "There's no need to thank me, I'm just doing what a parent should do." With that, she knocked on Emma's bedroom door.

"Come in," a small voice said. They walked into her room and were surprised to see she was packing all of her smaller toys into a suitcase.

"What are you doing, Princess?" Dave asked, using her nickname so she would know that she was, in fact, still his princess.

"You're gonna send me away and I don't want to forget anything here," the little girl said without looking up as she shoved a Barbie doll into the corner of the small bag.

Dave quickly crossed the room, moved the piece of luggage onto the floor, sat down on her bed in front of her and took both of her hands in his. "Emma, no one is sending you anywhere," he told her as she stared at the carpeting.

"But you got mad and you yelled and-"

He grasped her chin lightly and made her look at him and it nearly broke his heart to see the tears standing in her eyes. "You're right, I was angry and I'm still not happy about what you did, but you're my daughter and I love you and I will never send you away, no matter what you do."

With that, Emma flung herself into his arms. "I'm sorry daddy, I didn't mean to make you mad." Any remaining anger that Dave had towards his daughter melted away and a gentle grin spread across his face when he heard her call him daddy.

Emily, who had watched the two of them from across the room, was glad they had made up but she knew Dave was a goner now that Emma had called him daddy. Taking a deep breath, she stepped up to the plate.

"Emma," she said sternly. The little girl pulled out of Dave's embrace but still remained on his lap as she looked up at her with puppy dog eyes. She resisted the urge to sweep the adorable girl into a hug of her own and held her ground. "We've talked about you taking things that aren't yours, right? Especially after you took your sister's makeup last week." Emma nodded guiltily. "And you know you're not allowed in the office without me or Dave, right?" She nodded again. "Well then why did you go in there and take things you knew didn't belong to you?"

"I don't want anything bad to happen to Dave, and my teacher said smoking is bad for your health," she said tearily.

"Even so, you should have asked one of us before going into the study and you most certainly should have talked to one of us before you took Dave's cigars. Not only did you destroy Dave's things, you could have damaged the plumbing in your bathroom."

Emma nodded her head sadly. "I'm sorry."

Emily took a deep breath, "I know you are, sweetheart, but there have to be consequences for what you did; I'm afraid you're grounded until Monday morning."

"What? No fair!" Emma yelled loudly as she jumped off of Dave's lap.

"It _is_ fair," Emily told her. "You went into a place where you know you're not allowed, you took things that didn't belong to you and you destroyed them."

"But I was trying to HELP!" The little girl screeched loudly as she simultaneously stomped her foot.

"I know you were, but you still broke the rules," Emily said calmly.

"But…but Hannah was going to take me to see 'Frankenweenie' tomorrow! And then we were all going to go camping in the backyard!" The weather forecast called for unseasonable warmth for the next week and everyone was trying to take advantage of it. While Hannah loved camping out in the actual wilderness, Emma liked the _idea _of camping, but she wanted to be close to indoor plumbing so Dave had suggested a family camp out in the backyard and everyone had been looking forward to it.

"I'm afraid you won't be able to do either of those things," Emily said. "You're not allowed to leave the house until you go to school on Monday morning."

Emma huffed angrily and then changed her tactic and demeanor. "Daddy?" She said sadly, looking at the profiler with puppy dog eyes. "Can I _please_ go to the movie tomorrow? I really want to see it."

Emily prayed Dave would hold his ground with the little girl, that the use of the word 'daddy' wouldn't melt his heart. Thankfully, he was able to cling to a little bit of the anger he'd felt when he'd seen one of his prized Cuban cigars floating in the toilet bowl. "Nope, your grounding stands," he told her.

Emma's face twisted up again. "You both are mean!" She yelled, as she stomped her little foot again.

"Well, even if we are mean, we still love you Emma," Emily said. "And it's time for you to go to bed. Do you want us to read you a story?"

"No!" Emma said angrily. "I want both of you to GO AWAY!"

"Emma Smith, you will _not _shout at us like that," Dave said firmly. "Or do we need to tack on a few more days to your grounding?"

"No," the little girl said belligerently as got into bed.

"Good," he said as he pulled the covers up to her neck. "You sleep well, Princess. I love you."

"I love you too, daddy," she said with a pout.

"'Night sweetheart, I love you," Emily said as she kissed Emma's forehead.

"I love you too Emily, even if you are being mean by not letting me go to the movie tomorrow," Emma said petulantly.

The older woman knew it would be useless to argue with Emma, so she just shut the door behind her.

"Did you hear that?" Dave asked happily, almost bouncing from excitement. "She called me daddy!"

Emily smiled gently at him, "I heard." She was happy he was so excited about it, but a large part of her wished the little girl had called her 'mommy' as well. As if he could read her mind, Dave shot her a sympathetic look.

"I'm sure she'll call you 'mommy' soon, Em," Dave said. "I think she's a little more comfortable with me because I was the only one with them those first few days."

"I know, I just didn't realize until tonight that I really want someone to call me mommy," she said with a sigh.

"She will…eventually they both will." Though it was hard, he could picture Hannah calling Emily 'mom,' although he couldn't imagine the teenager ever calling him 'dad.'

"Speaking of which, you'd better let Hannah know that Emma's calling you daddy now; we _don't _want her to find out by hearing it directly from Emma."

"You've got that right," he said with a sigh; all he'd wanted was a relaxing evening but apparently that was not going to happen. "I'll talk to her."

"Good," Emily said. "And now I'm going to go and finally take my bath." With that, she gave her fiancé a peck on the cheek and headed for the master bathroom.

Dave watched her as she walked away and then took a deep breath and headed to the first floor. He found Hannah sprawled out on one of the sofas in the great room, watching TV. When she saw him, a worried look came over her features and she quickly sat up and looked at him expectantly. "Did you talk to her?" She asked.

He nodded, "I did and…well, something happened that I think you should know about."

"What did you do?" The teen practically hissed as she stood up to go talk to her younger sister.

"I didn't do anything," Dave told her as he caught her wrist and tugged her back down onto the couch. "Emma called me 'daddy' and I didn't correct her. I wanted you to know because I don't want it to shock you if she does it again. Also, since I plan on becoming both yours and Emma's official father, I don't want you to yell at her for calling me daddy and I don't want you to tell her she shouldn't."

A range of emotions passed over the teen's face. Dave saw confusion, sadness, anger and despair and, knowing the girl like he did, he assumed anger would win out, which was why he was shocked when she finally nodded and said, "Okay."

"Do you…do you want to talk about this?" Hannah's reaction had knocked Dave off of his game and he had no idea what to say. He'd had arguments formed in his head and he hadn't expected her to agree so readily.

"No," Hannah said. "It makes sense for her to call you 'daddy;' after all, she barely knew our dad and our mom died when she was fairly young so I'm glad she sees you and Emily as parental figures." There was silence for a moment and then a thought popped into the teen's mind. "You don't expect _me_ to call you 'dad,' do you?" She asked the question with distaste.

"No," Dave told her. While he would be overjoyed if someday she would call him dad, he knew that if he even mentioned his future hopes, it would push her farther away. "If you're more comfortable calling me Dave, then I'm fine with it."

"Good."

"I actually came down here for another reason," he told her. "Emily and I were thinking about going out for dinner tomorrow night and I was wondering if you could babysit. I'll pay you."

"Okay," she said, not mentioning that she would have done it for free. No, she was trying to build up a savings account with the money Dave and Emily gave her for an allowance just in case she and Emma needed to leave in a hurry someday and every little bit helped.

"Great," he said and then started to get up from the couch.

"Um, _CSI _is about to come on…you can stay and watch it with me if you want to."

Dave knew Hannah's offer was one of…well, he wasn't sure what to call it, but it was a nice gesture so, even though he didn't really watch the show, he stayed through the entire episode. He didn't know if it would ever be as easy between him and Hannah as it was between him and Emma, but he wanted to try and it seemed as if Hannah wanted to try as well. Maybe he had been wrong in his thoughts earlier; maybe someday both of the girls would call him dad.


	18. Chapter 18

_Peace, Love, and War-Chapter 18_

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><p>Two weekends later, Dave and Emily were finally planning their date night. They had planned on going out the night after the 'cigar flushing' incident, as it would always be known in the Rossi-Smith-Prentiss household, but once she'd heard they were leaving for the night, Emma had freaked out. She'd thought they were leaving because she'd been bad, so they'd stayed home in order to reassure her that everything was okay.<p>

Because they'd postponed their night out, the team had gotten wind of it and both JJ and Hotch had suggested a couple's night out. While he'd wanted to spend some time alone with his fiancé, Emily had jumped at the chance for a group date, so he'd given in and, as a result, he would be seeing two of his colleagues and their significant other's at dinner that evening.

He was about to mentally lament about the pros and cons of Beth and Will when his cell phone rang. He looked down and saw that it was one of his best friends calling him.

"Jimmy, what's up?" He greeted the priest. It had been awhile since he'd seen his friend…actually, it had been awhile since he'd seen many of his friends socially as his most of his free time was now spent with his new family.

"I've gotta say, Dave, I'm disappointed in you; both you and Emily," Jimmy told him in a stern voice.

"Why? What did we do?"

"It's what you didn't do; you didn't come to Parent's Day at the school yesterday." In addition to being his best friend, Father James Davison was also the principal of Emma and Hannah's school.

"What are you talking about? What Parent's Day?" Jimmy could tell his friend was genuinely confused and his irritation went down a few notches.

"It was Parent's Day at the school yesterday afternoon. After a special lunch, many of the parents attended their kid's classes and there was a special assembly and everything. It was a way for the parents to get to know the teachers and to get a glimpse into their children's academic lives."

"I had no idea," he said in dismay. "The kids never told us about it."

"We sent letters home with every student."

"Well we never got 'em," Dave said as annoyance and anger crept into his voice. At that moment, a distraught parishioner appeared at the door to Jimmy's office and he had to cut the conversation short with his friend.

After he hung up, Dave just stared at his phone; why in the world didn't the girls tell them about Parent's Day? Did they think he and Emily wouldn't have come? Sure, things were busy at work but, for the most part, they'd been sticking to their 'leave by 3pm' rule so one of them was there to pick the girls up from school by three-thirty. Both he and Emily had also begun taking turns going on away cases with the team. One of them would stay behind and work from headquarters while the other travelled, that way the girls weren't left with a nanny. Didn't that show them they were committed to being their parents? He was lost in these thoughts when Emily entered the study.

"Hey, we have a problem," she said as she stared at her phone.

"We have more than one," Dave muttered.

"Huh?"

"Nothing," he said, knowing he would talk to her about missing Parent's Day after their date-night. "What's up?"

"JJ's babysitter cancelled on her just now and Hotch's sister-in-law can't watch Jack tonight. I guess the date is off," she sighed.

"So? We'll go out alone," he told her.

"That sounds nice, but I was looking forward to seeing our friends outside of work," she lamented. "Anyway, I came to tell you that lunch is ready."

"I'll be there in a minute," he told her.

Emily nodded, left the room and walked towards the kitchen. As she approached, she could hear the two girls arguing, which seemed to be happening more and more lately.

"Emma, would you _please _stop it? I'm trying to make a sandwich!" Hannah was at the kitchen island making her lunch while her sister was crawling on the floor, pushing her Barbie dolls in their car in circles around the island and her sister. The little girl was also singing, off-key, at the top of her lungs.

"But Hannaaaaaaah," she whined as she continued to scurry around the island. "My Barbies want to go for a ride and they need music!"

"Fine, I'll put my iPod on the dock, but just quiet down!"

"No! I wanna sing!" The little girl yelled from her position on the floor. "I got my hands up, they're playing my song, I know I'm gonna be okay. Yeaaaaahhhhh, it's a Party in the USA! Yeaaaaaaah, it's a Party in the-"

"Owwwwww, dammit! That hurt!" Hannah said as she bent down to rub her leg.

"You swored!" Emma accused with a gasp. "You said a Dave word!"

Emily almost snorted from her hidden position in the doorway and then nearly jumped a mile when a quiet but deep voice rumbled in her ear, "A 'Dave word?' Do I really swear that much around them?"

Emily nodded. "But it's not just you; I think its all dads."

"Should we put a stop to this?" He asked, referring to the argument taking place in the kitchen.

"I think we should wait another minute to see if they can work it out by themselves," she said and Dave nodded in agreement.

"I know I said a bad word, but you rammed your car into my ankle!"

"Nuh-uh! Barbie and Skipper did it," Emma told her as she started to make another circle. "It's a Party in the USAAAAAAA!"

"God Emma, shut up! No one wants to hear that song!" Hannah snapped as she finally lost her temper. Mudgie, who was laying under the kitchen table, having already been used as a 'mountain' for Emma's car, began howling along with the little girl.

"It's mean to tell people to shut up! And Mudgie wants to sing with me, don't you, boy?" Emma said smugly.

"Yeah, well, Mudgie also likes to sing along with police sirens and car alarms. Do you really want to sing those?"

"Maybe I do!" She yelled. "Be boo! Be boo! Be boo! Be boo!"

Hannah stood at the counter and closed her eyes as she tried to regain a shred of her patience; she hadn't thought anything could've been worse than her little sister caterwauling along to the Miley Cyrus song but she'd been wrong; Emma's imitation of a car siren was much worse. She took another deep breath, but it was interrupted by the car hitting her ankle again.

"OW! Okay, that's enough!" She yelled as she put her toes and the front part of her foot on the toy to block it.

"Get off of it!" Emma screamed. "You're going to break it!"

"No I'm not; I'm just stopping you from crawling around here like a six year old demon! Now put your toys away, it's time to eat lunch."

Emma became frustrated as she struggled to move her car out from under her sister's foot. "You can't tell me what to do!" She screeched. "You're not the boss of me anymore, Hannah banana!"

Both Dave and Emily almost openly laughed at the name Emma called her sister and they were surprised at how much it seemed to annoy her.

"Don't call me HANNAH BANANA!" She yelled down at her sister.

"Banana!" The little girl yelled back as she jumped to her feet, her car apparently forgotten.

"You are SUCH a baby!" Hannah shouted as she rolled her eyes.

"I am not!" Emma yelled with a pout. "Hannah Banana!"

"Baby!"

"Banana!"

"Baby!"

"BANANA!"

Hannah glared at her younger sister for a moment and then she reached down, grabbed the Barbie doll out of the car and held it above Emma's head. "Well Barbie is going to have a tough time driving the car when she's not in it!"

The little girl's face turned beet red with anger. "Give it BACK!" She wailed.

"No way!" Hannah said as she dangled the doll just out of her sister's reach. "She's mine now!"

Emma screeched as she jumped for her doll, but her sister just lifted it higher into the air. Both Dave and Emily could see that the little girl was about to lose it, so they decided to finally enter the fray.

"Hannah, give Emma her doll back," Dave said as he entered the kitchen. "And Emma, no name calling."

"I also agree with your sister; you need to quiet down. Remember the talk we had about using our indoor voice?" Emily asked her. The previous week, Emma's teacher had sent a note home with her reminding her of the need for an indoor, quiet voice and Dave and Emily had been doing their best to promote the idea in the house. Unfortunately it was cold and rainy outside, so the little girl hadn't been able to go out and be noisy so the noise was coming out inside their once peaceful domicile.

"And I don't want to hear name calling from either of you," Dave said as he looked from Emma to Hannah. "If that doesn't stop, you both will be spending tomorrow restricted to the house and I know neither of you wants to cancel your plans." Hannah was meeting some of her new friends at a movie while Emma had a play date with one of the kids in her class.

"But she-"

"She started-"

"Enough!" Dave said. "Not another word out of either of you unless you want to spend the rest of the afternoon in your bedrooms. As it is, I'm worried about leaving the two of you alone tonight."

"We'll be fine," Hannah said with a roll of her eyes. "We were just arguing, it's not like we were going to kill each other. You guys go out and have fun with your team."

"Actually, it'll probably just be the two of us tonight since both Hotch's and JJ's babysitters cancelled on them."

"Tell them to bring Jack and Henry over here, I'll watch 'em," the teen said with a shrug.

"Really?"Emily asked in surprise. "Are you sure three kids won't be too much for you?"

The teen rolled her eyes in a typical teenage way. "I think I can handle three young kids. Besides, I could use the money."

"Great! I'll let JJ and Hotch know that we found a babysitter for them. Thanks Hannah!" Emily said, excited for a night out with friends.

As both girls sat at the table and ate their sandwiches, Dave thought about the situation. He was going to be leaving three kids under the age of seven alone with a fifteen year old girl in his nice, large, _clean_ house. What could possibly go wrong?


	19. Chapter 19

_Peace, Love, and War-Chapter 19_

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><p>"And then, he opened the creaky door and in the room there was a dog named Mudgie," Jack Hotchner said in, what he thought to be, a spooky voice. He also held a flashlight under his face to perpetuate the 'scary effect,' and while it was having the desired effect on Henry and Emma, Hannah had to keep herself from rolling her eyes at the young boy's theatrics. Sure, for a seven year old he was probably pretty scary, but she was tired and she was kind of regretting volunteering her babysitting services for all three kids, especially since two of them didn't have bedrooms in the house and would, therefore, be sleeping in the great room. She sighed as she thought about that; it meant that she wouldn't have a moment to herself until everyone arrived home. Thankfully, after a loud evening filled with three kids running around her, she'd decided to make the rest of the night a camping themed one and they'd seemed to calm down. That didn't mean there hadn't been 'incidents' along the way; there had been and she knew she'd have to try to clean the kitchen after the three little kids had fallen asleep otherwise Dave and Emily would have simultaneous heart attacks when they got home, but for the most part, the incidents had been minor ones.<p>

"Then Mudgie used his mouth to open the closet door and-" Jack paused in the middle of the story as they all heard the scratch of a key against the lock in the front door.

"Who's there?" Emma whispered as she grabbed onto her sister's arm.

"Is it the ghost?" Henry asked, wide-eyed as he hooked onto Hannah's other arm; even Jack looked frightened and scooted a little closer to the group. The three little kids breathed simultaneous sighs of relief when JJ, Will, Hotch, Beth, Emily and Dave walked through the door.

While the kids were surprised to see their parents back much sooner than planned, the adults were stunned by what they saw in the great room. First, even though it was only nine-o'clock, all three of the younger children were already in their pajamas and that was a minor miracle in itself. But what shocked the adults was the giant blanket/pillow/table/sofa fort that wrapped around the great room…that, and the fact that their children were lying in sleeping bags near a roaring fire in the fireplace.

There was a flurry of activity as Jack and Henry got up from their sleeping bags and ran to greet their parents while Emma ran to Dave and Emily. Hannah simply remained on the floor and watched the proceedings.

"Hey buddy, did you have a good time?" Hotch asked as he scooped his pajama clad son up in his arms. The little boy looked adorable in his Captain America pj's, as did Henry in his Spiderman pajamas.

Jack nodded enthusiastically. "It was lotsa fun! Hannah let us build a huge fort and she made a fire and we pretended we were camping!"

"Yeah, we roasted hotdogs on sticks over the fire and we ate on our sleeping bags," Henry told his parents before Emma picked up the thread of conversation.

"After that we tried making peanut butter cookies, but that didn't work out too well so we made s'mores over the fire instead."

"What happened with the cookies?" JJ asked Hannah.

"I had mentioned making cookies while we were watching 'Finding Nemo' in the great room and the kids were excited about it. Then Henry had an accident…um, while sitting in your recliner," the teen said to Dave before turning back to JJ. "So while I was helping him get cleaned up and changed, Emma and Jack thought they would help me by getting all of the ingredients out of the cabinets. They stood on chairs to get the sugar and flour sacks down, but both of them ended up on the floor and most of the contents spilled out…along with the eggs from the fridge"

"Jack, we've talked about this," Hotch said sternly to his son. "You need to ask permission before you get things down from the cabinets."

"But we were trying to _help, _daddy," the little boy said in exasperation. Hotch was about to reprimand him further when he felt a tug on his left leg.

"Mr. Hotch?" Emma said as she looked up at him with her puppy dog eyes. "We knew Hannie had a lot to do, so we wanted to help her. It was my fault that the flour dropped on the floor, don't get mad at Jack."

"Aw sweetie, I'm not mad," he promised. "Accidents happen." Dave snorted loudly from his position in the group as he watched his friend cave into his youngest daughter's emotional tricks.

"Seriously though, don't go into the kitchen until I've cleaned it," Hannah warned Emily and Dave. "I thought I would get to it before you guys got home, but you're back early."

"Yeah, we spent too long at the restaurant and we missed the first part of the movie, so we decided to skip it and grabbed dessert instead," Emily told her. After that, Henry and Jack left with their respective parents and it was just the Rossi family left in the house.

"We should probably start thinking about getting you into bed, Princess," Dave told his youngest daughter.

"Hannie said you might let us sleep down here in our sleeping bags if I asked you nicely. Please daddy?" Emma begged with her puppy dog eyes. "Please let us sleep down here; we can pretend we're camping and we can make more s'mores and I don't want to take the fort down yet because it's an awesome fort and it's warm in here and Mudgie will protect us," she said rapidly. "So can we _please _have our camp out?"

It took Dave and Emily a second to catch up with her but when they did, they nodded. "Sure Princess, as long as Hannah doesn't mind staying down here with you."

"Why don't we make it a family camp out?" Emily suggested. "That is, if you two don't mind."

"Sure!" Emma said enthusiastically. "It'll be fun!"

"Hannah, is that okay with you?"

The teen shrugged, "I'm fine with it; I just need to clean up the kitchen first. How about you finish watching 'Finding Nemo' with Em while I do that?"

"We'll help you," Emily said. "If we all work together, I bet it'll be clean in no time." The last word had just come out of her mouth as she walked into the kitchen and instantly realized just how wrong she was.

"Sweet Jesus," Dave breathed as he took in the mess. There was flour and sugar covering just about every flat surface of the kitchen. There was also an egg-sugar-flour mess near the refrigerator and he had to hold Mudgie back from eating it.

"Yeah, I think the flour and sugar bags flew from their hands as they dropped them," Hannah said as she grabbed cloth and began wiping the coffee maker down.

"It's like they spun around with the open bags first," Dave marveled, wondering how the kids had managed to get the white powder on the ceiling fan. Both he and Emily also grabbed towels and also began wiping down the surfaces while Emma picked up a small brush and started sweeping the sugar off of the counters. They all worked in silence for a few minutes before Emma broke the silence by singing at the top of her lungs.

"John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt! His name is my name tooooo!" The little girl yelled at the top of her lungs. "Whenever we go out, the people always shout, there goes John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt! Da da da da da da da!"

"No more singing," Hannah begged her sister. "Come on, Em! All you, Jack and Henry did tonight was sing; can't we just have a few minutes of peace?" She was going to kill Jack Hotchner for teaching the two younger kids the annoying song.

"But Hannie, singing makes cleaning funner!" Emma argued. "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt!"

The teen looked to her guardians for help as her sister re-started the annoying song but, to her dismay, they began singing too.

"His name is my name tooooo!" The two adults sang in unison, while wiping down the counter.

Shaking her head, Hannah gave up and joined in. "Whenever we go out, the people always shout, there goes John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt! Da da da da da da da!"

The four of them sang a few more rounds of the song before Emily stopped it abruptly in the middle of a verse. "Hey, what happened here?" She asked as she took Hannah's left hand in hers. She hadn't noticed it before, but there was a large, patch style bandage stuck to the middle of the teen's palm and she could see that blood had soaked through it.

"It's nothing," the teen said, trying to pull her injured hand out of Emily's, but the older woman wouldn't let her.

"It's something," Emily disagreed as she began gently removing the adhesive. "How did you cut yourself?"

Hannah blew out a frustrated breath. "It's stupid, I cut it when I opened a can of baked beans during dinner. It's no big deal."

"That's gonna need stitches," Dave said as he looked over Emily's shoulder at the injury to his daughter's hand.

"No it's not, it's fine; I disinfected it and bandaged it right away. I'll be fine."

"Hannah, I'm not going to argue with you," Dave said as he grabbed his keys from the counter. "We're going to the ER."

"God! Do you always have to tell me what to do? I told you I'm _fine_! I'm not going to the ER!"

"Does everything with you have to end in an argument?" Dave snapped as he threw his keys back onto the counter, pissed that their light-hearted night was once again turning into an argument. "Why can't anything ever be easy? Why can't you just do as you're told without debating it to death?" The three women in the room were a bit taken aback by Dave's outburst. Other than the night he found Emma flushing his beloved Cuban cigars down the toilet, he hadn't really lost his temper with either of the girls, but it seemed he'd finally hit his breaking point.

Anger flashed in Hannah's eyes and she threw her cleaning rag down on the table. "Whatever, I'm going to bed." She spun on her heel to leave the room, but her sister's voice stopped her retreat.

"No Hannie!" She protested. "We're going to sleep down here in the fort tonight. You promised!" Emily, as the only calm one in the room, stepped into the fray.

"Hannah, we'll hold off on the ER tonight but if your hand doesn't look any in the morning, you're going." The teen reluctantly nodded and Emily continued. "It's pretty much clean in here, so let's all get changed into our PJ's and meet back down in the great room."

"But Emily, I'm already in my jammies," Emma told her.

"You keep watching the movie, okay honey? We'll all be down in a few minutes."

"God, is there ever a time when you and Dave aren't telling me what to do?" Hannah asked in annoyance.

"Just do it without backtalk for once, okay?" Dave said in the same tone.

"Fine," the teen snapped before she stormed out of the room and up the stairs to her bedroom. After getting Emma settled in the large fort in the great room, Emily and Dave also climbed the stairs and began changing into their pajamas in the master bedroom.

"I'm really getting tired of arguing with her, Em," Dave said, still annoyed by Hannah's attitude. "I think I've been pretty fair with her so far and I've held my tongue with all of her sass, smart comments and attitude, but she's starting to tread on thin ice. I am _not _the enemy, but she sure treats me like one."

"She's fifteen years old, Dave; you and I are _both _the enemy," Emily told him. "And we will be for the next few years and then, when she finally comes around, Emma will be entering her teen years and we'll become _her _enemy."

"Great," Dave muttered as he pulled on his comfiest pair of sweatpants.

"It's all part of having kids," Emily shrugged as she pulled one of his FBI t-shirts over her head. "I'm not saying it will all be bad, but it won't be smooth sailing either. Think back to when you were a teenager; was everything always rosy between you and your parents?"

"No, of course not."

"Add in all that the girls have been through and it's going to be a bit more difficult and a little different; we still don't know exactly what happened to Hannah, plus their father had an…interesting impact on their lives for many years. Who knows how that will affect their relationships with us," Emily said as they both finished changing.

"I suppose you're right," Dave said with a sigh as he grabbed his pillow from the bed. "I just wish it could be easy sometimes…I wish everything didn't have to be such a struggle with her." With that, they both left the room and made their way down to the great room. As he descended the stairs, Dave promised himself that he would remain patient with his teenage daughter.

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"No daddy! No more tickles!" Emma shrieked as Dave caught up with her in the fort and began tickling her ribs. It was getting late and it was long past her bedtime but since they were having a 'family camp out' in the great room, he and Emily had decided to suspend both girls bedtimes. While he was chasing the little girl around the room, Hannah and Emily had made s'mores over the fireplace.

"Mmmmm, this was always my favorite part about camping," Hannah said as she licked some gooey marshmallow off of her wrist. "Dad was all about 'living off of the land,' but mom always insisted on bringing the fixings for s'mores. Sometimes, if hunting or fishing had been bad, it was the only thing we had to eat for a day." She offered part of her gooey treat to her sister, who had jumped onto the sofa next to her.

"See, in comparison to that, it's not so horrible living here with me and Dave." Emily had said it teasingly, but she saw Hannah's expression change and she knew she had said the wrong thing.

"I never said it was horrible living here," she said quietly but Emily could hear a defensive tone in her voice.

Dave, who had overheard their conversation and was still a bit peeved about their previous argument, said, "Well you sure act like it is," he said as he joined them on the couch.

"Whatever!" The teen said with a roll of her eyes.

"No, not 'whatever'," he argued, "Most of the time you act like you're living in a prison and that Emily and I are your wardens instead of your parents!"

"You're NOT our parents!" Hannah yelled. "You're our 'temporary guardians,' whatever the hell THAT means!"

"Is that why you didn't tell us about Parent's Day at your school?" He asked loudly and then almost chuckled at the shocked look that came over Hannah's face. "Didn't think I'd find out about that, did you? Let me tell you, Jimmy called and read me the freaking riot act about not coming to it!"

His ire grew when he heard Emily ask, in a hurt voice, "There was a Parent's Day at your school and you didn't invite us?" He knew his soon-to-be wife was feeling insecure about her place with the girls ever since Emma had started calling him 'daddy' and this sure as hell wouldn't help that.

"I…we didn't…it wasn't like that," Hannah stammered, hating that she and Emma had hurt the woman's feelings. "It wasn't my decision," she finally said as she glanced at her little sister, who was sitting in Dave's lap.

"Emma? You didn't want us coming to Parent's Day?" Dave asked the little girl as she began to squirm nervously.

"No, I wanted you to come but it was against the rules," she said and everyone in the room could tell she was on the verge of tears.

"What do you mean, Em?" Emily asked gently.

"My friend Lisa wanted to invite her gramma and my other friend Bobby wanted to invite his daddy's girlfriend but my teacher said they couldn't come; only parents could come, and I didn't wanna get in trouble." She knew that even though she called Dave 'daddy,' he and Emily weren't really her parents.

"And she asked you to go along with this?" Emily asked Hannah, who nodded. "Why didn't you come to us?"

The teen shrugged, "I didn't think you guys would be interested in going." Their dad, when he was actually home, never went to their school stuff.

"Well you were wrong," Dave told her. "Emily and I want to be involved in your education so from now on, no more hiding things like this from us, capisce?"

"But I don't want to get into trouble!" Emma protested. "Only parents are allowed to come and you and Emily are just our guardians!"

Seeing Dave's frustration, Emily tried clarifying things for both girls. "Hannah, do you have your iPhone on you?" The teen nodded; she didn't go _anywhere _without her cell phone. "Good, can you please look up the word 'parent' and read us the definition?"

She quickly pulled her phone from her pocket and went to dictionary . com and looked up the requested word. "Parent: a father or mother, an ancestor precursor or progenitor, a protector or guardian."

"See, the word 'guardian' is in the definition of parent," Emily told them. "Dave and I want to be a part of your lives and that means doing things that your parents would normally do." She saw the older girl open her mouth and kept going before she could interrupt. "And before you ask, _no_ we're not trying to replace your parents, we want to be…in addition to them."

"But you both keep telling us you want to eventually adopt us," Hannah said, confused.

"Right," Emily agreed.

"But that will be like our parents never existed. Our birth certificates will be changed and we'll have to refer to our parents as Mark and Sarah instead of mom and dad and-"

"No you won't," Dave said, getting back into the conversation. "We would never expect you to forget about your parents or not refer to them as 'mom and dad.' While we would love it if you would eventually call _us _'mom and dad,' both Emily and I will completely understand if you're never comfortable doing that."

"And we're not going to have your birth certificates changed," Emily added. "That's usually only done when someone is adopted as an infant."

"Oh," the teen said, processing all of the information. "But the internet said-"

"Don't go by what the internet says," Dave told her. "Come to us if you have questions."

"Okay," she said. "Why do you guys want to go for adoption? Why not just stay our guardians?"

"There are many reasons," Emily said. "First, we never want there to be _any _question that we're your parents. Second, most people end at the permanent guardianship stage because adoption proceedings can be expensive. Adoption proceedings are much more in-depth than guardianship hearings and it involves more lawyers and such but since Dave and I each have some money, we want to go the whole route with the two of you." She paused for a moment to let the two girls process for a moment and then continued. "Finally, if anything were to ever happen to Dave and I, we want to make sure that all of our FBI benefits go to you and they wouldn't if we were simply your guardians; we have to fully adopt you for that."

"Okay, that makes sense," Hannah said, feeling relieved that they didn't want her and Emma to totally forget about their parents.

"How about we bring both of you with us the next time we meet with our lawyer?" Emily suggested. "That way you can talk to him directly about all of this."

"I would like that," Hannah said gratefully.

"And I'll make sure Jimmy talks to your teacher so she knows it's okay for us to come to your school events, okay?" Dave asked Emma.

The little girl nodded happily. "That would be great, daddy! I don't want to get in trouble."

Emily glanced at the clock on the TV and saw it was past midnight. "Now I think it's time for all of us to go to bed."

"Ooooh, can we go to the Pancake Hut for breakfast tomorrow?" Emma asked as she slid into her sleeping bag. "Pleeeeeeaaaaase?"

Dave and Emily exchanged glances and then both nodded in unison. "I think that can be arranged," he said as he got into his own sleeping bag. He knew he was too old to spend the night sleeping on the floor, but he didn't want to ruin their family 'campout' by going up to his bedroom to sleep so he decided to deal with physical consequences the next day.

"Mmmmm, yummy!" Hannah said as she drifted off to sleep. Soon the rest of the family followed suit, including Mudgie, who had wedged himself between Hannah and Emma.

xxxxxxxxxx

The family was awakened by a persistent knocking at the front door the next morning. Everyone was content to ignore it until whoever was on the other side went away, but after three minutes, the person was still knocking and Emily finally got out of her warm sleeping bag cocoon to answer it.

"Somebody had better be freaking dead," she said pissily as she made her way to the door. "It's eight o'clock in the freaking morning on a Sunday, for God's sake!"

She finished her rant as she reached the door. She unlocked numerous locks and flung the door open. "Do you know what time it is?" She started but then stopped when she realized exactly who she was talking to.

"There was a time when you would have been awake, dressed and ready to go to mass on a Sunday morning, Emily."

"Good morning, mother," she said with a sigh.


	20. Chapter 20

_Peace, Love, and War-Chapter 20_

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><p>"Aren't you going to invite me in, Emily?" Her mother asked primly. "It's quite rude to make your guests stand on the front stoop." Emily could hear the reprimand in her mother's voice and she felt as if she had been transported in time…she felt as if she was fifteen years old again and she suddenly felt self-conscious to be standing in front of her mother in her pajamas with her wild bed-head.<p>

"Of course mother, come on in," she said as she stepped aside so the older woman could enter the house.

Elizabeth stepped through the door and walked into the messy great room. She was greeted by the sight of Dave, Emma and Hannah all asleep on the floor in their sleeping bags. She also took in the large fort, the toys scattered around and the general mess from the s'mores the previous night and clucked her tongue in displeasure; in her world, children had always been seen and not heard. If the children wanted to make messes like this in their own room, that was one thing, but to have the entire living area dedicated to them was quite another. Her thoughts were interrupted as she nearly tripped over a doll lying in the middle of the hallway.

She let herself be led into a large kitchen by her daughter. "Coffee, mother?" Emily asked and she nodded as she sat down at the breakfast bar. She watched her daughter pour her a cup from a pot that must have been pre-set, and then she poured one for herself and sat down next to her. "Why are you here, mother?"

Elizabeth smiled wryly, "You don't beat around the bush, do you Emily?"

"No, I am much too busy for pleasantries."

"So I've heard. Please tell me the rumors are incorrect. Please tell me you are not trying to adopt two little girls with the Lothario of the FBI," the elder Prentiss practically begged.

"Your informational sources are correct as always, mother," Emily responded as she took a large draw of her coffee; she knew she would need all the caffeine her body could handle in order to deal with her overbearing mother.

"And you didn't think to let me know? I had to hear about it secondhand!"

"I'm sorry," Emily responded. "I didn't even know you were back in the country."

"I've been back for nearly six months, Emily. You couldn't have picked up the phone?"

"The phone works both ways, _mother,_" she said irritated. "My work keeps me just as busy as yours does."

Elizabeth took a breath and mentally counted to ten to calm herself as she drank her coffee. "I don't want to argue with you, Emily; I just want to know what has been going on in your life and what your plans are for the future."

Emily brought her mother up to speed about her relationship with Dave and how the girls had entered their lives. "Right now we have temporary custody of them, but we hope to get permanent custody soon and then we'll go for adoption."

"So you're going to throw away everything you've worked for? You're going to give it all up for a man with a less than stellar reputation and two girls who are nothing to you?" Elizabeth asked through pursed lips. "Your reputation with the FBI? All of your options? What about all of your hard work, your education; has that been for nothing?"

"Those girls are _not_ nothing to me!" Emily hissed as quietly as she could so as not to wake her sleeping family in the living room. "They are my daughters, goddammit and don't you _ever _say they're not! I'm trying here mother, but if you ever say something like that again, you will no longer be welcome in my home. Do you understand?"

Elizabeth was shocked at her daughter's vehement reaction. "I understand, Emily," she responded frostily.

"And I am not giving anything up, I'm still working at the BAU, as is Dave, we're simply rotating our travel with the team."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Dave travels on one case, I travel for the next, and so on and so forth. We also rotate early days," she said. "One of the judge's main worries was our work hours, so everyday one of us leaves early enough to pick the girls up from school and then we work from home for the rest of the afternoon."

Elizabeth gave an indelicate snort. "And you honestly believe that you are not giving anything up by doing that? You have to put your career first if you want to get anywhere in life, Emily!"

"You and I have different priorities, mother! Unlike some people, my family will always be my first priority," Emily said with a glare. Elizabeth was about to take offense at her daughter's insinuation but, before she could, they heard Emma giggling in the hallway.

"Put me down, daddy!" The little girl squealed as she and Dave entered the room. Dave was holding the six year-old by the ankles and the little girl was laughing hysterically.

"How about I-" he stopped abruptly when he saw the visitor in the room. "Hello Elizabeth," he said politely. "I would shake your hand but, as you can see, they're pretty full at the moment. It seems a little monkey was roaming around the great room!"

"I'm not a monkey, I'm a girl!" Emma said through her laughter.

"Put her down, Dave, before she passes out," Emily told him. Emma's face was turning quite red because of her position and the last thing they needed was for her to get sick because of it.

"Easy does it, honey," he said as he set her in a standing position. She took a couple of woozy steps and then smiled.

"Can we do that again?" She begged.

"Maybe next weekend," Dave said as he kissed the top of her head.

"Ugh! Don't you people realize that _some _of us are trying to sleep?" A disgruntled Hannah asked as she entered the room. "It's only eight-thirty!"

"Sorry Hannie, but daddy was carrying me upside down! It was really cool!"

Hannah, who couldn't stay mad at her sister for long, tousled her hair. "S'okay Em."

"Who's that?" Emma whispered to her sister as she pointed at Elizabeth. "She kinda looks like Emily."

"Girls, this is my mother, Elizabeth Prentiss," Emily said as an introduction. "Mother, these are my daughters, Emma and Hannah."

"It's nice to meet you ma'am," Hannah said politely and then nudged her little sister.

"Nice to meet you," the little girl said shyly.

"It's nice to meet you too," Elizabeth told the girls as she scrutinized them. Both of them felt as if they were under a microscope and Dave jumped in to save them from the elder Prentiss's calculating stare.

"So will you be in DC for awhile?" He asked his future mother-in-law.

"I'll be here for the next year or so before going abroad again. I've requested a posting in the Middle East," she said.

"Well hopefully you'll still be here for the wedding," Dave said without thinking. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he remembered that Emily hadn't told her mother about their pending nuptials yet. He watched as his future bride paled and his future mother-in-law narrowed her eyes at him.

"Wedding?" She asked lethally.

"Yes wedding," Emily told her as she held out her left hand so her mother could see the ring. "David and I are getting married."

"I see," Elizabeth said, barely holding on to her polite façade. "Congratulations."

"Thank you, mother."

Nodding, Elizabeth pulled out her iPad and brought up the calendar. "When are you planning to have the ceremony?"

"We were thinking sometime in the spring," Dave responded.

"All right, we'll have to move quickly in order to reserve the Henley Park Hotel but we can probably still get it," she said, making a note. "I'll have Jeanette call you and she can nail down the plans with you. I'll see if I can get the caterer who did the embassy Christmas party last year since the food was excellent. Do you know which designer you want for your dress?" She asked and then shook her head as her daughter just stood in open mouthed shock. "Never mind, I'll have Jeanette contact five or six of them for sample dresses. Now, off the top of my head, I'll have around three hundred people on my guest list. Just email your lists to Jeanette and she'll take care of that as well. I should warn you, the Henley can only hold about four-hundred people, so you'll want to choose your guests carefully. Also-"

"Mother, stop," Emily interrupted once she finally found her voice. "We are not going to have a big, fancy wedding and I'm sure not going to let you invite three hundred strangers!"

"Emily, there's a certain etiquette about these types of things. I _have_ to invite-"

"No you don't!" Emily interrupted again. "This is _my _wedding! Mine and Dave's, _not _yours. We are going to have a small, outdoor ceremony with our closest friends and family members and that's it! You're welcome, of course, but not three hundred of your guests, and I'll plan my own wedding, I'm not going to foist it onto your assistant. If I need or want your input, I'll ask for it but otherwise you need to back off and let me run it the way I want to."

Elizabeth was practically seething with anger at her daughter, both for the way she had spoken to her and the way she was disregarding decades of protocol. Didn't she know what this wedding could mean for her? "Fine Emily, do it your way, you always do."

Emily _really_ wanted to retort back, but she saw her daughters watching the proceedings with wide eyes and she decided to end it. "We are going to the Pancake Hut for breakfast this morning and you are welcome to join us if you wish."

"No thank you," she said coolly. "I should be getting back to the embassy." She stood up and reached for her purse. "It was a pleasure meeting both of you," she said to her pseudo-granddaughters and they both nodded silently. Emily walked her to the door and, as Elizabeth stepped onto the porch, she said, "Do keep in touch, Emily." Then she turned and walked toward the waiting car on the street.

Emily waited until she got into the care before she closed the door and let out a deep breath. "That actually went better than I envisioned," she said weakly. Dave wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to him.

"I'm glad you didn't let her ride roughshod over the wedding," he said. "Even if it did piss her off."

"Oh, I'm sure she was much more pissed off about other things," she told him and he quirked a brow at her. "We discussed some of my recent life choices and let's just say she's not a fan of some of them."

"You mean us, don't you?" Hannah asked, feeling bad that she and her sister had gotten in the way of Emily and her mother's relationship.

"Hannah, my mother has never liked _any_ of the choices I've made in my life, starting when I was four years old and refused to take ballet lessons. As you could probably tell, we don't have a warm and fuzzy relationship and I could honestly give a shit about what she thinks of anything I do now."

"You said a daddy word!" Emma accused. As both Hannah and Emily laughed, Dave made a mental resolution to cut back on his swearing; the last thing he needed was his daughter saying something like that at school…the school where his best friend just happened to be the principal. He knew if that happened, it would eventually get back to his parents and he would never hear the end of it.

"I guess I did," she said and then changed the subject. "Come on, let's go get dressed so we can get a good table at the Pancake Hut!" With that, Emily and Emma scurried up the stairs with Dave and Hannah right behind them. They all knew there was nothing a good plate of pancakes couldn't fix.


	21. Chapter 21

_Chapter 21_

**Okay, so I usually don't apologize for the length of time between updates, since this is pretty much a hobby for me and I'm not getting paid, but I really am sorry it's taken me so long to update this story. I took a job in Asia in the spring, so I was preparing for that for months. Then, after three months oversees, the job fell through, so now I'm back in the US job searching again. That being said, I hope to update this story more frequently.**

* * *

><p>"So how bad was she?" Dave asked his dad as they stepped into his study.<p>

"Which one?" Nicolo asked wryly.

"Dad," Dave sighed. ""Come on dad, level with me, was Hannah really as horrible as mom made her out to be? Because I gotta tell you, from mom's colorful descriptions, it sounds like I left you with the anti-Christ. Did her head rotate 365 degrees and did she vomit pea soup?"

"What can I tell you son? Your mother and your oldest daughter got along like oil and water. No, scratch that, they got along like fertilizer and kerosene."

"Great," Dave grumbled. Both he and Emily had been ordered by the Director to accompany the team to Idaho for a particularly gruesome case and, as a result, his parents had watched Emma and Hannah for nearly a week. While they hadn't wanted to leave the girls, both he and Emily had felt secure in their decision to leave them with his parents…that is until they'd gotten home and his mother had gone on and on about Hannah's behavior.

Nicolo chuckled softly. "I think your mother is having difficulty coming to terms with the fact that one of her grandchildren doesn't like her. It's obvious Hannah hasn't forgiven her for what she said about her father, but she wasn't that bad."

"Really?" Dave scoffed. "According to mom, my oldest daughter is controlling, rude, and blatantly dislikes her."

"Your mother wasn't exactly peaches and cream herself," his father said in defense of his granddaughter.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that when it became apparent that she and Hannah weren't going to bond, she focused more on Emma. Plus, she didn't exactly care for Hannah's independent streak, nor her controlling ways with Emma."

"That's actually gotten a bit better for Emily and I," Dave said. "She's accepting us a bit more as the parents in the relationship, but it's taken awhile. I should have warned you both about that...sorry."

"Don't worry, Davie, it wasn't that bad. Besides, Hannah seems to have taken a shine to me, much to your mother's consternation," Nicolo said with a chuckle.

Sophia, having said her goodbyes to Emily, approached her son and husband. "You need to do something to set that girl straight, Davie," her mother warned. "She was rude, controlling, blatantly disrespectful, and downright unpleasant at times!"

"You didn't help the situation though, did you Sophia?" Nicolo said sharply.

Dave's mother propped her hands on her hips and glared at her husband. "What exactly do you mean by _that_, husband of mine?"

"It's true that Hannah wasn't your best friend, but you didn't exactly go out of your way to make friends with her."

"I don't know what you're implying," Sophia sniffed haughtily, "But I tried my best to get that girl to like me; it wasn't my fault that she likes you best."

Nicolo didn't want to argue in front of his son and future daughter-in-law, so he decided to cut it short. Turning to Dave, he said, "Don't be too hard on her, son; both she and Emma were fine."

"Well...okay," Dave said, not fully believing his father; he'd seen Hannah's moods and he knew she could be downright unpleasant when she wanted to be. "Thanks for watching the kids. Where are they?"

"Emma's on a play date at her friend Kara's house and Hannah went to the movies with some of her friends. She's going to take the Metro home and we told her to be back for dinner by six."

"Great, thanks again for all of your help with the girls," Emily said as they walked toward the front door. "Dave and I shouldn't have to leave together too often and we'll start looking at nanny services so you don't have to-"

"You will do nothing of the sort," Sophia interrupted. "No matter what happens while you are gone, both of those girls are our grandchildren and you will _not _leave them with strangers, capice?"

"We got it mom, and thanks again." With that, Nicolo and Sophia left the house and got into their car. The ride was quiet for a few minutes, until Nicolo spoke up.

"That was a nice thing you did back there, Sophia," he said as he kept his eyes firmly on the road in front of him. "But you realize you'll have to try harder with Hannah if we stay with them again, right?"

"Well she's going to have to try harder too, Nicolo," the older woman said petulantly, sounding very much like the teenager they were talking about. "I wasn't the only one who screwed up."

"No, but you _are _the more mature person in the situation and Hannah has a genuine reason to not trust you."

Sophia huffed through gritted teeth. "I apologized to her about that. What more-"

"Oh, I don't know, Sophia; maybe include her in things? Maybe not show such a blatant favoritism toward Emma?" Her husband said angrily.

"When did I _ever _show favoritism toward Emma?" Sophia asked indignantly.

"How about taking her shopping and then out for a treat Thursday afternoon?" Nicolo asked rhetorically. "You didn't even ask Hannah to go with you."

"But…but she wouldn't have wanted to go!" Sophia protested.

"That's not the point!" Nicolo argued loudly. "She's your granddaughter; she's _family_, you should have invited her for that simple reason." He lowered the volume of his voice. "She was really hurt by that."

"What?" Sophia asked disbelievingly, almost in a whisper.

Nicolo nodded. "When I got home that afternoon, she was nearly in tears. Sure, she tried to cover it up with a tough façade, but she couldn't hide the redness of her eyes. Remember how quiet she was at dinner that night? She barely said a word and she took maybe two bites of her food."

"Damn," Sophia said softly, as she realized what she'd done.

"Yeah," her husband said as he pulled onto the highway. "If you ever want to have any kind of relationship with her, you're going to have to be the bigger person and find a way to get along with her."

"I will," Sophia said with a quiet determination. "I'll fix this somehow."

xxxxxxxxxx

"So then we watched Finding Nemo, and Kara's mom made cookies shaped like fish! It was so cool! And then her cat must have thought they were real fish and he tried eating my cookie! And then-"

"Whoa, you need to take a breath, Princess," Dave interrupted. He'd listened to his younger daughter describe her play date for the past five minutes and he doubted whether she'd taken more than two breaths during the entire monologue.

"You also need to take some bites of your food before it gets cold," Emily added with a smile.

"'Kay Emily," the little girl said as she took a big bite of her beef stew. "Mmmffff ttthhhh-"

Dave gave her a stern look. "Chew, swallow, _then _talk." The little girl gave him a big grin, which showed most of the food in her mouth, and nodded.

Emily turned to their eldest child. "How was the movie?" She asked her.

Hannah shrugged. "It was fine."

"What did you see?"

"World War Z," the teen responded.

"Was it scary?" Emily asked, trying to get the teen to open up; there were days it felt like they were going backwards with her.

"Nah, there are more zombies in one episode of _The Walking Dead_ than there were in the entire movie, but it was fun to be hanging out with friends again," Hannah said. "That reminds me, I was invited to a wicked cool Halloween party next Saturday; can I go?" She knew if her guardians asked too many questions about it, they would most likely say no, but she had to try.

"That depends, where is it? Who's hosting it? And we'll need to talk to the parents who will be there before we even think about letting you go," Dave told her. While he was a bit miffed at her, due to his mother's description of her behavior, he would have had the same questions and requirements even if she hadn't behaved abysmally while they were gone; it was a matter of safety and common sense.

Hannah huffed out a sigh. "God Dave! I was invited just this afternoon, so I didn't have time to interrogate my friend, but I think it's going to be held at a vacant mansion that one of my friend's families has up for sale."

"So in other words, no parents. Am I right?" He asked, already shaking his head.

"Probably, but so what? I can take care of myself!"

"Hannah," Emily said in a gentler tone than her fiancée, "If there are no parents, things can get out of control quickly; it wouldn't be safe for you to go."

"Plus, there will be drinking, drugs, sex, and God knows what else going on there," Dave added.

"Again, I can take care of myself!" The teen screeched as she slammed her fork down on the table. "I've been taking care of me and Emma for years and we managed to survive, so what makes you think I wouldn't survive a lame high school party?"

Emily opened her mouth to calmly respond, but unfortunately Dave beat her to the punch. "The answer is no," he said. "I know you can take care of yourself, but parties like this can get out of control quickly. Why don't you have a party here instead? You and Emma can invite all of your friends."

Emma's face brightened at the thought of having a party with her cool, older sister but it fell when she heard her response. "I am _not _throwing some kind of baby Halloween party that will involve a bunch of six year olds! I want to go to the party I was invited to!"

"I'm sorry Hannah, but that's not going to happen," Emily said firmly.

The teen glared at both of her guardians. "You're just pissed because I didn't get along with Sophia while she was here. And you want to punish me for not being sunny and happy with the social worker last week."

Dave narrowed his eyes at her; a few days before they'd left for the case, a social worker had come by for a surprise visit and Hannah had been downright nasty to her. Both he and Emily felt lucky that social services hadn't yanked both of the girls out of the house that night.

"You're half right," he told her. "I'm not happy about your recent behavior, but that's not why we're not letting you go; you're not going because I don't want you getting into a situation you can't handle. End of discussion."

"Whatever, this is crap and you know it!" She said as she got up from the table. She ran out of the room and up to her bedroom where she slammed the door loudly.

Hannah angrily threw herself face down on her bed and mentally ranted at both of her guardians for a little while before she finally sat up. "I'm going to that party," she said softly as she looked out the window. "And neither of you can stop me."


End file.
